Fear Me
by LilKiwiBird
Summary: Every war starts quietly. Mine had been brewing since the founding of Derry way back in the sixth century. Not that anyone did anything about it. That was until the summer of 1988. That summer, we fought back.
1. Epigraph

_Every war starts quietly. Mine had been brewing since the founding of Derry way back in the sixth century. But nothing happened until the summer of 1988 when George 'Georgie' Denbrough went missing. He was not the first to go missing, not in my class at least._

_No one did anything of course. In Derry, you looked the other way and turned the other cheek, so to speak. That's just the way it was, kids went missing all the time, you see. That's not to say that people didn't search. They did. _

_Just not for very long or very hard; familiar missing posters wallpapered the streets on every lamp post and corner. A childish face printed on the back of the milk carton asked if you had seen them. No one was ever found of course and eventually you were forgotten altogether._

_That was until the summer of 1988. That summer, we fought back._


	2. A Call From Hell

_**"…Far away, long ago,  
**__**Glowing dim as an ember,  
**__**Things my heart used to know,  
**__**Things it yearns to remember…"  
**__**-Once Upon a December, Liz Callaway**_

_**Lebanon, Kansas, Present Day**_

Tensions ran high the morning after the Hugo Moriarty case, encompassing the Men of Letter's bunker like a heavy blanket, suffocating those within. At least, that's what it felt like for Katherine. Skirting around Sam, Dean and Mary, she slipped in and out of the rooms as quietly as possible, avoiding the three Winchesters like the plague.

It was clear to her that Mary had been affected more so by this latest case than her revival from the dead; leaving her to question her place in this world. But who could blame her? One minute her kids were barely out of nappies, the next they were adults well on their way to retirement (not that that would happen anytime soon). As heartbreaking as it was, it was probably fair to say that Mary felt a bit out of place and there was nothing wrong with that.

Katherine had been searching for her personal cellphone, an android (which despite popular opinion, was preferable to the iPhones that _always_ broke) when Mary had finally reached a head; telling Sam and Dean what she really thought.

Garbed in her trademark flannel shirt and patched up denim dungarees, paired with slouchy mismatching woollen socks & worn silver Saint Ursula pendant, Katherine padded around the war room in search of her android.

"Where could I have put it?" Katherine muttered standing on her tiptoes so she could sift through the upper levels of the bookshelves. Even at 35, she was still climbing furniture and standing on tiptoes to reach the upper shelves. Oh the woes of short people! "Nope, not in here" She replaced the lid on the wooden urn full of mountain ash that stood as a bookend on the shelf.

There was really only one other place she had yet to check and that was the library. The very room where the sombre voices of the trio of Winchesters echoed out from. Hiding in the doorway between the war room and the library, Katherine waited for the perfect time to slip in and grab her phone from where she could now see it piled the mess of her things on one of the far library tables. Because of course, it was going to be in the last place she looked, it always was.

Katherine thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't drawn any attention to herself from where she stood. Both Dean & Sam's attentions were stuck solely on their mother as they spoke and as usual Sam's large frame easily dwarfed hers and hid her from view, allowing her to listen in to the conversation without being found out. "…I miss my boys" Mary admitted, glancing down at her feet.

"But we're right here, Mum" Sam replied; trying reassure who, he didn't know.

"I know, in my head" Mary turned to smile sadly at Sam, "But I'm still mourning them as I knew them. My baby Sam and my little boy Dean. It just feels like yesterday, we were together in Heaven and now…I'm here and John is gone…and they're gone and every moment I spend with you, reminds me of every moment I lost with them"

Silence reigned as her words sunk in. It was clear that the boys were trying to hold back the tears that glistened in their eyes. Hell, even Katherine felt a little teary and it wasn't even her mother. Of course, she never knew her own mother so was she even allowed to feel like this?

"And then I thought hunting, working would clear my head…" Mary defended with a fake smile wobbling on her lips.

"Mum…W-What are you trying to say?" Sam questioned.

"…I have to go…I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I just need a little time" Mary took a step towards Dean, clearly wanting to embrace her eldest son or at least to get a reaction out of him other than the solemn, stoic expression he was currently sporting.

When Dean stepped back from his mother, rejecting her advances she nodded sadly and picking up John's journal turned to her youngest. "I love you" Mary pulled Sam into a tentative hug, before pulling back. "I love you both" Dean nodded, but couldn't stand to look at her. She was leaving them, again.

Just as Mary made to leave to gather her things, Katherine's phone sprung to life, shattering the atmosphere in the room and startling the others in one fell swoop as it rattled against the tabletop like it had a life of its own. "Oops, I'll just…yep" Katherine muttered sheepishly as she zipped into the room, weaving between the taller occupants and answered her phone. "Hello?"

_"Katherine Ursa?"_ A masculine voice on the other asked. It sounded familiar, like someone she had gone to school with but had forgotten their face.

"Yes?" She asked fiddling with one of the partially carved stones she had left on the library table earlier.

_"It's Mike Hanlon. From Derry"_

Katherine felt like her heart had jumped into her throat and her stomach had dropped to her feet. It couldn't be. She hadn't heard from Mike since she last in Derry and that 18 years ago, not long after she had graduated from Derry High.

_"Kat?"_ The familiar nickname seemed to jolt her into gear as she shifted the phone to hold between her shoulder and ear.

"Yeah, hang on" Katherine muttered quickly collecting her old rock hammer and partially completed stones before hurrying out of the library, intent on finding somewhere private, feeling eyes on her the entire way.

* * *

Once situated in the bunker's kitchen Katherine returned to her call. "Sorry, what were you saying, Mike?"

_"Listen…It…is back"_ He said slowly almost as if her were afraid to say so. Katherine feeling faint, slumped down against the fridge as she sought solace in the coldness the machine emanated through the door. In a vain attempt to calm her jackhammering beating heart, she rubbed her old silver Saint Ursula pendant between her thumb and forefinger, the image worn from the repeated motion over the years.

"A-are you sure?" Katherine asked, her voice shaky as she gripped tight to the pendant in a white-knuckled grip.

_"Do you remember the promise, Kat? Your promise?"_ He replied, neither answering nor ignoring the question.

Katherine didn't answer at first, the fear so consuming that she almost felt sick to her stomach. She hadn't felt like this in years, not since that summer in Derry all those years ago. Gently she ran a finger over the tattoo encrusted scar that ran the length of her right shaky palm. It was a simple tattoo, nothing overly complicated or ballsy. It was simple, but she liked it: a couple of thick lines sliced through the white scar, turning it into a line of stitching.

"W-When…?" Katherine breathed out, not really needing to finish the question.

_"Tomorrow, I'll send you the details"_ Mike answered, filling in what she was trying to say.

"O-okay"

_"See you tomorrow, Kat"_ And with that, the terrifying blast from the past ended, leaving Katherine a shaking, frightened, pale mess on the kitchen floor.

* * *

It couldn't have been more than half an hour before Mary wandered into the kitchen with duffle bag in hand. Michelle still sat huddled against the fridge door; only this time she was nursing a beer and fiddling with an old collection of carved stones as she blasted old rock 'n rolls songs through her headphones.

"Kate? Are you okay?" Mary asked, dumping her duffle on the kitchen table and coming to sit across from Katherine on the floor as she pulled a fresh beer from the pack on the floor. Katherine's headphones had to come to rest around her neck now, still faintly rolling through her 80s rock 'n roll playlist.

"Can…can I ask you something, Mary?" Katherine hedged, fiddling with the stone person she held in her hands, running her fingers over all the little grooves and notches as she thought.

"Sure, what is it?" Mary asked a little wary.

"Hypothetically speaking…if the thing that got you into hunting, turned up…would you take it on again?"

"Is this about the call you got?"

"…Kind of" Katherine took a sip of her beer.

"Well, how long has it been? If you've fought this thing before, don't you have the advantage this time?" Mary sipped at her own beer, splaying her long legs out in front of her as she lent back against the kitchen island.

"It's been about twenty-seven years"

"T-twenty-seven years?!" Mary choked "But that would have made you what? Six? Seven?"

"I would've just turned seven"

"Jesus…"

"Yeah, tell me about it…a lot of bad things happened…and a lot of good things too"

"…Well, how did you beat it last time? What happened?"


	3. Welcome to Derry

_**"…No more pencils,**_  
_**No more books**_  
_**No more teacher's dirty looks…**_  
_**School's out for summer,**_  
_**School's out forever…"**_  
_**-School's Out, Alice Cooper**_

_**Derry, Maine 1988**_

A group of elementary kids sat clustered around three long & brightly coloured tables sat in a U-shape around the classroom, waiting for the bell to finally end the school year. Each child held a large yearbook in front of them with pages and pages of messily written goodbye messages.

Off to the side of the blackboard, the young teacher appeared swamped by the younger kids who clambered for her to sign their books; handing her little handmade farewell gifts of pictures and crafts. Just like the colourful and wild art wallpapered along the classroom walls and hanging from the clotheslines on the ceiling.

One wall in particular stood out against the others, despite the colourful background, what was depicted on the wall was less than pretty. Wallpapered from end to end was a collection of photos ranging in everything from school photos to missing posters and paired with farewells and miss yous.

_**BRRING! BRRING!**_

A loud cheer from the young kids echoed the sound of the bell and then a thunder of tiny feet as the group raced through and out of the building, ignoring the well wishes of the teacher as they went.

"Candy bar or ice cream: go!" Evelyn Bowers stated to her friends next to her as they walked down the hallway of the Derry elementary school.

"… I think I would choose ice cream, 'cause it's summer and it's-it's…very, very hot and ice cream helps you um, cool down and it…and that's why it has 'ice' in the name. 'Cause you have to have ice to make it; to make it cold" Grace Simmons rambled to her two best friends that stood either side of her.

"Yeah! But what-what's your favourite type of um, ice cream?" Lily Matthews asked, holding tight to the straps of her backpack.

"Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate!" Grace chanted, "And if I had a _chocolate_ candy bar, then I would also choose the candy bar"

Grace Simmons, Evelyn Bowers and Lily Matthews ruled the first grade with tiny little iron fists; like tiny little Queen Bees in the making. Unfortunately they had the means to back up their (at this point) weak little threats.

First there was the Simmons family, who had run the power plant for generations. Something that Grace was none too keen about inheriting, but was all for using the power that came with it, (pun unintended).

In the case of the Matthews, they didn't have huge shares or investments in booming industries or company chains. No, what they did have was their name on several plots of land scattered around Derry. Including the one on which _Saint Ursula's Home for Children_ stood.

And finally, Evelyn Bowers. Well, what more was there to say? With her father as a police officer and her elder brother as the bully that he was, it was fair to say she had learnt a thing or two about intimidation from them.

And how does this trio of seven year olds matter? Well, they were the very bane of Katherine Ursa's existence. At the ripe old age of seven, Katherine had more to worry about than your average first grader. Between the Sisters at St. Ursula's and the Bowers junior gang of bullies, life was hell.

Being an orphan was hard at any age, that much was true. The constant rules, discipline from the Sisters, no shoulders to cry on…the list just went on. Because who wanted to be friends with the kid whose parents didn't even want her? Not that she was the only orphan in Derry, of course.

In fact, a lot of the kids in the elementary school shared the same surname as she did. It was something that the sisters did in order to tell who had been dumped on the doorstep as a babe and who actually had parents that had been lost. To differentiate between the unwanted and the lost.

Even the pendants they had been given upon arrival furthered this idea. Each child was 'gifted' with a silver pendant depicting the crude image of Saint Ursula on one side and on the other side lay your name, birthday and number of the orphanage. It had been grilled into them to wear the pendants all day, every day. They were like dogs; ones who came to adore their collars.

Hugging her yearbook to her chest, Katherine shrunk as low as she could, compressing her short stature as far as it would go so as to pass by the trio before she was spotted. What a way that would be to end the school year! To end it without a confrontation!

But alas! It was just not meant to be. Just as Katherine made to slide past Grace, she was met with an arm to the face as it flung about wildly. "Ow!" Katherine clutched to her cheek as she fell to the ground, banging up against the wall of lockers as her things scattered everywhere.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Lily taunted, hands on hips.

"Looks like a bitch without her leash" Evelyn added. She'd learnt the curse words from her family too.

"Maybe we should teach her what happens to strays" Grace ended, her grin turning wicked as Katherine stared up at the three with fear-filled eyes.

At seven years old, sadly she had no friends to back her up, no backbone of her own and there was no way an adult was going to intervene. This Derry, the adults didn't care; they looked the other way. Always.

* * *

"Hurry _up_, girl!" Sister Michaels ordered from underneath one of the oak trees that lined the school yard and stood next to the noticeboard which read: _Remember curfew 7pm_. In front of the stout woman, a group of kids ranging from pre-school to third grade had gathered in a large clump.

Ever since the disappearances of a few kids had begun at the start of the year, the Derry police department had put a 7pm curfew into effect. Not that everyone listened of course. But that was why an irritated Sister Michaels was here now; to escort the younger orphans from school to the orphanage.

"Well, now that we're all here" Michaels sent a glare in Katherine's direction, one that held promises of punishment later. Katherine shuddered. The Sisters hated any reason that tarnished their 'good' name and that included anything from tardiness to backtalk, which could be grounds for punishment. "Let's go"

Turning smartly on her heel, Michaels led the group out of the gate, marching them two by two towards Turner Street where the orphanage lay. "Is that Tommy Wicker's mum?" Barney asked from behind her, his question pointed towards his friend but Katherine turned around to look all the same.

"Does she really think she'll see him coming out of the building?" Joe softly replied.

Katherine hugged her damaged yearbook tighter as the handprint on her cheek stung in reminder. On the other side of the street right in front of the school gates, sat one of the few police cruisers, with Wicker's mum desperately searching for her son within the crowds of kids.

One of the two cops who had obviously taken pity on the poor woman (that or they had other intentions, if the lecherous leering was anything to go by) was leant against the back door of the car whilst the other cop stayed watching from where he was seated in the driver's seat.

"I dunno. As if Tommy Wicker's been hiding in gym for the last few weeks" Barney commented.

"You think they'll actually find him?" Joe asked.

_Oh sure._ Katherine's thoughts dripped with sarcasm as she turned to hurry after the others, _Dead as a doornail and forgotten in some ditch somewhere._

Because this was Derry and that's just how it was.


	4. Here be Monsters

_**"When our eyes first witness the evil of this world, we are stripped of a fearless existence. We are forced to accept that our worst nightmares were simply warnings of waking truths" - W.R.**_

The next day, Katherine found herself stowed away in one of the great old oaks that lined the outskirts of the park. It was officially the first day of summer and she had the marks to prove it. She had been true in her assumption that Sister Michaels would punish her for her tardiness after school and so she had been reintroduced to _'Nothing'._

_Nothing_ was a wide brown leather belt that was almost as tall as her which had cracked and withered with age; but that didn't matter, it still hurt like hell. The word 'NOTHING' was engraved down the length of the leather on both sides in fancy handwriting, no doubt the handiwork of Sister Agnes. It even had its very own case in which it sat when not in use; right there, centre stage on the desk in the Mother Superior's office.

Once upon a time, the belt had just been a belt. Nowadays though? With the added engraving (curtesy of kids saying they wanted nothing done to them as a punishment) it did very little to pretty up the weapon. For it was a weapon in any hands of the Sisters. Her sore back could attest to that.

The constant scrape of metal against rock soothed Katherine in a way that most other things didn't. Maybe it was the constant need to keep going, the determination to finish even the smallest project or maybe it was just the feeling of getting sucked into something she enjoyed so much.

Georgie certainly had like her stone figures. Unfortunately, Georgie Denbrough was now just another name to add to the list of the missing kids. He had gone missing during the huge rainstorm a few months prior; the newspaper said he was just washed away down the drain like a rat.

But something about that didn't sit right with Katherine. How could a person, even as small as they were, fit down the sewer drain? Surely you'd get stuck halfway, wouldn't you? And wouldn't someone have heard him? Georgie hadn't exactly been a close friend of hers, but they had had fun together during the occasional class project and if there was anything she had learned, it was that upset seven years olds could yell _quite_ loud.

Katherine paused in her crude carving (she _was_ only seven) and glanced around at the park. It was strangely quiet now, like someone had hit the mute button on everything around her. Down below, there was no one to be seen. The park which had just been filled with kids playing tag and adults picnicking under flowering trees had just…magically disappeared.

She felt her hackles rise as if someone was watching her, maybe it was Grace or Evelyn coming to pick on her. Although that would be relatively new, hunting her down to 'teach her a lesson'. They usually preferred spontaneous 'lessons'. Which was fine with her, since she learnt how avoid them like plague.

When nothing (besides the mysteriously empty park) caught her attention, Katherine let her gaze wander back to the canopy she was hidden in. She shouldn't have. Katherine screamed high and loud, trying to scramble out of the way as she spotted what was in the tree with her.

There was a someone…or something in the tree staring at her. And she quite literally meant_ in_ the tree. Where the knot in the opposing branch been a moment before, now a face frozen in a scream sat there.

The creature seemed to peel itself from the tree, its head emerging from the large knot in the tree and its twisted body from the trunk of the great oak. On its head, two large antlers sat twisting and turning into a macabre sort of skeletal crown. Where the eyes should have been, there were two black holes, sunken into the head and its mouth was open in a silent scream.

Scrambling backwards, Katherine went too far and met air instead of tree. Falling down, down, down she watched as the creature bent down, it's skeletal tree-like claw plucking a black ornate lantern from a hollow above where her head had been.

This monster, this Beast was just like the one from the ghost stories she'd heard some of the older kids tell around Halloween. She _knew_ it was just a story meant to scare kids like her, but that didn't mean she still wasn't terrified to her core. She the Beast to take it! She liked her soul!

The fall out of the tree felt like it lasted forever, like she would never meet land again. With fear gripping her jackhammering heart in a white-knuckle grip, she watched the Beast slowly lean out of the tree, towards her, with his flickering lantern in hand.

"Ka-the-rine! Ka-the-rine! Itty bitty Ka-the-rine!" The Beast sang, its voice creaking like the old oak it was made from. "Won't you light my lantern, Ka-the-rine?" Katherine screamed again, her young voice bouncing off of the branches of the tree and echoed back at her like a piercing siren in her ears.

When her back finally met the ground, Katherine didn't waste any time. She grabbed a fistful of her worn satchel and sprinted out of the park, mindless to the looks she was receiving from the park-goers who had miraculously returned like they had never left in the first place.

* * *

Katherine ran and ran until she the main street of town. Moving through the backstreets and alleys was second nature to her, to any of the kids of Derry really. It was how they got around the stupid curfew to be honest.

She eventually slowed to a stop when she popped out onto the main street by the post office. Skirting the arcade in the back end of the movie theatre where the 'cool kids' liked to hang out. With her old satchel clutched to her chest and her head bowed low, she trotted along the main street, making sure to keep the building roadside of the path just in case.

She tried her best not to glance at every tree she passed, afraid that the Beast might suddenly pop out and drag her away to harvest her soul for his greedy lantern.

Katherine wasn't really sure where she was headed, she just knew she had to get away from the park. And maybe the Barrens. She couldn't return to the orphanage at this time of day, she just knew she'd end up in solitary or something equally as horrifying for interrupting the Sister's summer.

They always took advantage of summer, turning the kids out of the orphanage during the early hours of the morning and not letting them back in until dinner or the curfew at the latest. It let them have the whole house to themselves, and made the other people of Derry deal with the rambunctious children for a few hours.

Some of the older kids said they played adult games with each other; ones that involved lots of weird toys. So no, there was no way Katherine returning to the orphanage right now.

Scuttling passed the pharmacy Katherine was pulled from her musings by the sounds of voices down the side street that backed onto the river. Freezing in place, Katherine watched from the mouth of the alley as a strange scene played out.

There was six older kids in total, five boys and one girl. One of the boys was a little chubbier than the others and looked badly hurt from where he sat on one of the wooden crates that lined the wall of the pharmacy. Probably Henry Bowers' work if she had to guess; all the Bowers were the same, egotistical fuckwits. (She'd learnt alot of curse words from their neighbour, Mr Redwood. He wasn't a very good handyman).

Kneeling at his feet and looking at something on his stomach was a brunette with a fanny pack tied around his waist and he was listing off all these fancy medical terms that she had no chance of pronouncing right. Hovering over the two and on either side of them was another pair of boys.

The shorter one wore glasses so thick they almost looked like coke bottles and the blonde looked like he would keel over in the wind. A little further from the quartet stood the final pair, a ginger-haired girl who smiled like the woman who ran the night and a boy who vaguely resembled Georgie; probably making him his older brother.

"…That looks like it hurts" The girl stated to the chubby boy on the crate.

"Oh. No, I'm good. I just fell" The boy blushed, he probably liked her.

"Yeah! Right into Henry Bowers" Sassed the boy with glasses.

"Shut it, R-Richie" Georgie's brother stuttered.

"Why? It's the truth!" Richie retorted.

"You sure they got the…right stuff to fix you up?" The girl winked at the boy on the crate. The boy blushed harder.

"You know, w-w-we'll take care of him. Uh, thanks again, Beverly" Georgie's brother excused.

"Sure, maybe I'll see you around" Beverly replied, clearly aware when she was being dismissed.

"Whose the midget?" Richie suddenly interjected, directing his question with a jerk of his chin at Katherine. Katherine felt her eyes blow wide at being discovered and let out a small squeak of fear before she scurried across the mouth of the alleyway and disappeared down the road. Richie's next question loudly echoing out of the side street behind her. "Who the fuck was that?"


	5. We're All Losers Out Here

_**"…Come together right now**_  
_**Over me…"-Come Together, The Beatles**_

This was _not_ how Katherine thought her day would go. She had been leaving the library, all too consumed in the lemon sherbet the sweet old librarian had given her, so much so that she didn't even see Evelyn and her cronies appear. She had-quite stupidly-walked straight out onto the main path, only to walk straight into Evelyn; not only knocking her to the ground, but smearing the ice cream she had been eating all over her pretty dress and onto the ground.

People in the next county over probably could have heard her screech, she was so loud. With declarations that Katherine was a stupid, clumsy bitch for not only ruining her favourite dress, but also for making her drop her ice cream, resulted in promises to make her pay.

And so the chase began. Pumping her arms, Katherine fled from the mess on the library steps with plaits flying behind her, intent on getting away. Weaving in and out of people in the street as she moved, Katherine was once again thankful of her small size that allowed her to do so.

Eventually, Katherine found herself traipsing through the Barrens, slipping and sliding down hills and jumping over logs as she made her way towards the Quarry. Evelyn was still hot on her heels but loosing pace. Ducking behind a thick tree trunk, Katherine waited for Evelyn to run passed her, down the path before she took off towards the left.

"YOU BITCH! GET…BACK HERE!" Evelyn roared having spotted her. However the threat didn't hit home as much as Evelyn would've liked due to the heavy panting that broke up her words. Katherine didn't bother to look over her shoulder to see how far away Evelyn was, the blonde's footsteps practically echoed throughout the woods as the two ran and she could've sworn that she felt a light tug or two on her long chunky plaits.

There didn't seem to be any end to the chase in sight. Well, that wasn't quite true, there was one, but it wasn't one she'd usually take in the right state of mind. But with fear clouding her judgement, who could really blame her?

Katherine's legs seemed to pump faster as she neared the edge of the cliff overlooking the Quarry and with one almighty push, she jumped. Little grabby fingers barely grazed her plaits, the auburn wisps slipping from the blonde's fingers as she fell down, down, down.

The fall was both quicker and slower than she'd thought it be, having had the instinct to tuck her legs up into her chest, Katherine cannonballed into the water with a small splash. It took a few moments for her to surface once more, much to the disappointment of the Bowers child.

Katherine paddled in place to keep her head above water & looking up at Evelyn, raised her hand in the air, doing something she'd seen the older kids do a lot. She shoved her middle finger up into the air and the reaction she received from Evelyn was definitely something she wanted to see more often.

A laugh bubbled up and escaped her lips as she watched Evelyn's face turn sour like she'd just realised she'd stepped in dog shit. There was no other way down to the Quarry unless you jumped or walked all the way down the narrow cliff path. Something that all Derry kids knew and right now, Katherine revelled in the fact that Evelyn couldn't reach her unless she too, jumped.

* * *

Katherine stayed at the Quarry for at least another hour by herself before someone else arrived. Thankfully Evelyn had left not too long ago, after she realised the impasse she had reached; of course she hadn't left without shouting obscenities at Katherine. But she wouldn't be a Bowers if she hadn't.

She had then stripped off her soaked t-shirt, dungarees & sandals and left them to dry out on the sun-soaked rocks. Tucked into either pocket of her dungarees sat her wooden slingshot and little rock hammer; each item equally important to the little brunette. And that left her in her pendant, underwear & a pale tank top that hung off of her frame like a kite.

She then set about looking for different sized rocks which she periodically tossed onto the shore. She would go through her collection later and choose which ones she wanted to use for carving. Most of her final carvings were rather crude in their image, but she was only seven and still learning. Katherine couldn't quite remember where she had learned how to carve stone, only that it was something she greatly enjoyed.

Finally it was to the sound of chattering voices drifting towards her end of the river, that she popped up from the water, leaving herself partially submerged with her plaits floating around her like sea snakes.

Having caught sight of the large group of kids headed her way, Katherine decided to make herself scarce, diving back beneath the surface and headed towards the riverbed in search of stones once more.

* * *

Katherine ran her hand over the shell of the little turtle that swam around her ankles, eyes bright at finding the little treasure in the waters of the Quarry. Mindless of anyone else, she chucked the stone in her hand over her shoulder and towards the shore as she continued to watch the little turtle for as long as her little lungs would allow.

At least that was the plan until she heard someone exclaim from the shore. "Ah! What the fuck?!" The voice that sounded from above the water must have been loud as it pierced through the layers of the water, even as deep as she had gone.

With lungs burning, Katherine left the little turtle alone and pushed off from the riverbed, kicking furiously. Once she broke the surface of the water, she sat there, floating for a bit as she caught her breath. With her back to the shore, there was no way for her to notice the large group of kids now gathered there.

"Hello?" Called a second voice, making Katherine spin around in her place, sending up waves as she did so. When she caught sight of the group on the shore, her eyes lit up in recognition, recognising them as the group of kids she had seen in the alleyway by the pharmacy the day before. And with that thought in mind came another, one that said they probably didn't want her here.

None of the older kids ever wanted to play with the younger kids; the ones at the orphanage said they were too annoying and whiny. Katherine ducked her face back beneath the water, leaving only her eyes and nose free from the water. Around her, her plaits floated like sea snakes and her pendant floated in front of her, shining like a beacon in the water.

"Are these yours?" It was the girl, Beverly, who gestured to the drying clothes and stones scattered around them. Katherine merely nodded, afraid to speak.

"Hey! You're the midget from yesterday! Are you following us or something?" Richie piped up.

"B-beep beep, Richie" Bill muttered.

"What? It's just a question"

"What are the stones for, anyway?" Beverly asked, trying to encourage the young girl into a conversation.

"…Carving" Katherine replied quietly.

"You carve stones?"

"Uh huh"

"What do you do?"

"Anything. People are the easiest"

"Can I see 'em?"

Katherine decided she quite liked Beverly, she wasn't like the other kids. Where they were mean & cynical, she was kind & sweet and she seemed to genuinely care about what Katherine said, which was a first for her. At least as far as Katherine could remember.

Doggy paddling over to the shore, Katherine heaved her soaking wet frame out of the water and onto the sun soaked rocks next to where her clothes lay baking in the midday sun. Shifting through her deep pockets, Katherine pulled out a couple of stones she had only just finished which she then handed to Beverly.

Both carvings were about the size of a tennis ball, but long and skinny like a green bean. The dark one on the left had a large nose that ran the length of the stone and it had been carved in such a way that the brow rested low enough to cover where the eyes should have been. And inscribed on the back of the stone was one simple message:

_S.M._  
_1969-1987_

In contrast, the lighter stone in Beverly's grip depicted a face frozen in rage. The jaws were opened wide to reveal the sharp fangs that lay within and two sunken holes revealed the beady eyes within. Again, this stone also had a small message inscribed on the reverse of it:

_S.G._  
_1957-1988_

"Well, that's not creepy at all" Richie muttered sarcastically, looking over at the pair of girls by the river.

"S-shut it, Richie" Bill stuttered although he silently agreed. The expressions that either stone held were a little disturbing. Whether it was because the girl was still young and she was just starting to grow her skills or like most children's art could be seen as rather creepy in some way or another.

"Well, _I _like them" Beverly declared turning the stones over in her hands. Katherine beamed at the praise. "I'm Beverly by the way"

"Kat. My name is Kat" Katherine rushed out.

"What like a pussy cat?" Richie laughed from over Beverly's shoulder, "Is that cause you're so tiny?"

Katherine felt affronted by Richie's constant comments on her person, she got them enough from school and the Sisters, she didn't need it from random kid. So calling upon some courage she didn't know she had, she puffed out her chest as she retorted. "I'm seven, you asshole! What's your excuse?"

Next to her Beverly barked a laugh that was quickly smothered by her hand as she turned away. But it wasn't Beverly that she was worried about, it was Richie. Richie wore this odd expression that made him look like he was constipated. It was _almost _like he wasn't used to being cursed out by a seven year old.

There was a beat of silence as the moment stretched on. The other boys hid varying signs of amusement as best they could; everything from twitching lips to smothered laughs. Suddenly the tense silence was broken by the wide grin that settled across Richie's face as he lounged against the rocks he was leant against.

"I like you, midget! You've got spunk!" Richie grinned at Katherine, his tone of voice reminding her of a game show host. A tentative smile wobbled on Katherine's lips as she looked up at the other kids, her gaze roving over the others who were gathered there, where they too were lounging around in their underwear.

The boombox perched on the rocks crackled as the cassette came to an end, the last few notes of Young MC's _Bust a Move_ drifting out from the speakers just as Richie pounced on the backpack sat by his feet.

"Newsflash Ben! School's out for summer!" Richie reported, talking like a news reporter as he shifted through the backpack.

"Oh that? That's not school stuff" Ben replied sitting up.

"Who sent you this?" Richie wiggled his eyebrows as he flipped over a postcard with a picture of the old mill on the front of it.

"No one. Give it…No one" Ben snatched the postcard out of Richie's hands and stuffed it further into his bag. Down by the river, both girls had looked up from their current conversation and had been listening in as Richie poked through Ben's things.

"What's with the history project?" Eddie asked, looking over Richie's shoulder at all the newspaper clippings.

"Oh…well, when I first moved here, I didn't really have anyone to hang out with…so I just started spending time in the library" Ben replied as Richie handed over the folder of articles to Bill.

"You went to the library? On purpose?" Richie questioned.

"Oh, I wanna see!" Beverly stood up and made her way over to sit next Bill. Behind her, Katherine quietly shuffled over until she was sat on the edges of the group, still unsure if she was allowed to be there or not. The feeling of being out of place still ever present.

"What's the Black Spot?" Stanley asked looking through the photos that had been handed his way.

"The Black Spot was a nightclub that burned down years ago by that racist cult" Eddie replied.

"The what?"

"Don't you watch _Geraldo?"_

"Y-your h-hair" Bill stuttered as Beverly sat next to him. Beverly looked like she wanted to hit him, like she was afraid he'd say he didn't like it. Of all the times for his words to get stuck in his throat!

"Your…your hair's beautiful, Beverly" Ben complimented, spitting out the words that Bill had been trying to say.

"Oh…right, thanks" Beverly ran a hand through her short ginger locks. Somehow the same words coming from Ben seemed less romantic and more friendly.

"Here, pass it" Richie demanded cutting through the awkward tension that settled between the trio on the end. "Why's it all murders and missing kids?"

"Derry's not like any town I've ever been in before" Ben replied. "They did a study once, and it turns out people die or disappear _six times_ the national average"

"…You read that?" Beverly asked.

"Yeah and that's just grown-ups. Kids are worse. Way, way worse…I've got more stuff if you wanna see it"

Despite the quiet protests from Eddie and Stan, the group of older kids quickly dressed and headed back towards their bikes. Behind them, Katherine stood hiding in the shadows the trees cast, watching as they left her alone. She was used to it of course, but they seemed different from other kids. They were nice. She thought they'd be nice friends.

"You coming, Midget?" Richie called turning around on his bike to look over at her. Katherine beamed so wide it could have split her face. Scrambling down the path, she hopped on the back of the bike and held on tight as they zoomed away.


	6. Beware the Dark

_"__**It was so dark it was like noting was there in the room but us. Only the nothing was actually something because it filled my eyes and lungs and it sat on my shoulders."-**__**A Head Full of Ghosts**__**, Paul Tremblay**_

Shrouded in the darkness of the old underground bunker, Katherine lay curled up upon the concrete slab that served as the bed at the far end of the room. Like all the other beds in the orphanage, she wore a leather shackle around each of her ankles which chained her to the bed.

The Sisters had said that it so they didn't go far when they sleepwalked (when, not if), but personally Katherine thought it was so they couldn't escape in the middle of the night. Not that there was really anywhere else for the kids to go.

For Katherine, she had wound herself in solitary because she had woken Sister Agnes during the night with her nightmares. The Beast she had seen at the park had returned begging for her soul to light his lantern and this time her was trying to lead her to the well house.

Not that Sister Agnes had understood that, no she just thought that Katherine had wanted to stay up later or something along those lines. Katherine had been too wound up in her lingering fear to really hear or understand what Agnes had been saying as she dragged her down to solitary.

Shifting up right, Katherine rolled herself off of the bed and shuffled over to the large tin bucket that served as the toilet, to relieve herself. Like most of the children who were forced into solitary, she'd soon overcome the disgust of pissing in, what was essentially a tin can, least she piss herself.

Squatting low over the bucket, Katherine shifted her attention away from the sound of her piss splattering against the walls of the bucket, filling the room with its loud hissing. After she had joined the large group of older kids headed back to Ben's house, they had discovered what he meant by 'more stuff'

Now Katherine hadn't been invited over to too many people's houses, but she was pretty sure wallpapering your bedroom with cold case crimes was a little weird. But that's what Ben had done. Every inch of his bedroom was covered in missing posters, little handwritten notes and old (police) articles. The only thing that wasn't history or Derry related was a _New Kids on the Block _poster which had left Ben a panicky blushing mess when Beverly discovered it.

The most interesting thing they had found however, was the copy of Derry's Township Charter. Apparently 91 people had signed it and all 91 had gone missing, disappeared without a trace. Gone like a fart in the wind. And the only clue? A trail of bloody clothes leading to the well house. It was fair to say those nightmares that night were well deserved.

As her stream of piss petered off, Katherine turned back to the comfort of the dark room. And the darkness that enveloped the small room became almost like a companion, a protector, one in which she could easily navigate (at least down here), using all the nicks and grooves in the walls to move around the place.

It was a small rectangular room which reminded her of a dungeon from those Grimm fairy tales they'd read it school. On the back wall, opposite the stairs sat the concrete bed with a single pillow and scratchy woollen blanket atop it. On the right wall sat a dirty large mirror that bounced what little light there was around the room.

Below the mirror sat the tin bucket next to the drain on the left wall had originally been left bare, but over the years kids had scraped messages and tallies into the wall while they had been kept down here. There was everything from _EVAN WAZ HERE _to _HELP ME _and all the other scratched messages in between.

There was only one new item in the room and that was the speaker system that sat up in the back corners of the ceiling, where they blasted hymns and prayers 24/7 in an attempt to 'rehabilitate' the naughty children. Bloody torture is what it was.

Currently, a recording of Derry High's choir performing their rendition of _Down to the River to Pray _was playing over the speakers. Again. Unable to help herself, Katherine found herself singing along to the hymn as she curled up on the bed again, wrapping the scratchy blanket around her for what little warmth and protection she could get.

_**As I went down to the river to pray,  
Studying about that good old way  
And who shall wear the starry crown?  
Good Lord, show me the way**_

Just then, the room seemed to grow darker still, if it were possible. No longer could she see the little light bouncing off of the mirror, couldn't even hear the wind that trickled down the long stairs that rose out of the dark room.

_**Oh sisters, let's go down,  
Let's go down, come on down**_

_**Oh sisters, let's go down,  
Down in the river to pray**_

A strangled cough worked its way up her throat until it got stuck, leaving her spluttering and grasping at her neck as she tried desperately to breathe. There was just _so much_ black, dark nothing that she felt like she suffocating in it. Drowning in this heavy feeling.

_**As I went down in the river to pray,  
Studying about that good old way**_

_**And who shall wear the robe and crown?  
Good Lord, show me the way**_

When the feeling did end, she wished it hadn't. Wished she was fast asleep and that this was all a dream. A really, really bad dream. Katherine's eyes blew wide in fear and her already wildly beating heart felt like it was trying to rip through her chest.

_**Oh brothers, let's go down  
Let's go down, come on down  
Oh brothers, let's go down,  
Down in the river to pray**_

For standing in front of her was the Beast from the park. Its skeletal form stood tall, blocking the stairs and any means of escape. Wind whistled through its twisted form, and gently rocked the ornate lantern back and forth as the candle within flickered dangerously.

_**As I went down in the river to pray,  
Studying about that good old way  
And who shall wear the starry crown?  
Good Lord, show me the way**_

The Beast creaked as he bent down, leaning over her tiny form. His sunken eyes gave her pause, for they were no longer empty. Instead several sets of glowing beady eyes stared back at her. Katherine screamed loud and clear as she watched monstrous red and white-tailed spiders drag themselves out of the wooden craters and scurry down the figure.

_**Oh fathers, let's go down  
Let's go down, come on down  
Oh fathers, let's go down,  
Down in the river to pray**_

There was nowhere to hide in the room, it's why the Sisters liked to use it for solitary, and for that Katherine cursed them to Hell and back. Tears streamed down her face as she wept and pleaded for the monster to disappear. It wasn't working, the Beast just leered closer.

_**As I went down in the river to pray,  
Studying about that good old way  
And who shall wear the robe and crown?  
Good Lord, show me the way**_

"Ka-the-rine! Ka-the-rine! Itty bitty Ka-the-rine! Don't you like my spiders, Ka-the-rine?" The Beast sang, his jaw unhinged and hung loose like it was going to fall to the floor at any moment. And yet still, more and more spiders crawled out of every orifice on the creature, flowing like a river.

_**Oh mothers, let's go down  
Let's go down, don't 'cha wanna come down?  
Oh mothers, let's go down,  
Down in the river to pray**_

"It's not real. It's not real" She muttered as she scrambled back across the bed as far as she could go. Katherine curled up tight into a ball and scrunching her eyes shut, clutched tight to her head as she shook in fear. The words that fell from her lips would have made the Sisters proud, Katherine would later think, because in her time of crisis she turned to reciting verses from Psalm 91.

"…Because you have made the Lord, who is myrefuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways…" Katherine trembled.

_**Oh mothers, let's go down  
Let's go down, come on down  
Oh mothers, let's go down**_

"Prayer won't help you now, Ka-the-rine! You're gonna light my lantern! Forever!" The Beast leered, pressing his face so close she could practically smell his breath which carried the sickly sweet scent of death. Fear gripped her tight, but she continued to pray.

"…You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot…" Her voice trailed off into a whimper as a long tongue reached out and ran itself up her right cheek and down her left, gathering her salty tears as it went.

"Won't you look at me, Ka-the-rine?" The Beast sang, sounding upset as he pulled back, "Look at me Ka-the-rine! Look at me! LOOK AT ME! LOOK! LOOK! LOOK AT ME!" When Katherine finally did peel her eyes open, what she saw was by far more terrifying than anything she could ever imagine. And so, Katherine screamed.

_**Down in the river to,  
Down in the river to,  
Down in the river to,  
Down in the river to pray**_

All the kids knew what would happen if you brought the Sisters down to solitary before your time was up, but Katherine didn't care. She screamed herself raw, anything to get this creature away from her.

Ironically it was Sister Agnes who arrived as her saviour, unknowingly chasing away the monster who'd tried to devour her. But Katherine could not relax, for there stood Sister Agnes at the foot of the stairs with the _Nothing _belt wrapped taut around her hands. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Shit.


	7. Blood, Guts & Scrubs

_"…__**I see a bad moon risin'  
**__**I see trouble on the way…  
**__**I see bad times on the way…"  
**__**-Bad Moon Rising**__**, Morning Ritual**_

The next day found Katherine wandering down Turner street, absentmindedly kicking an empty beer can as she went, when the others arrived. "There she is!" She heard Eddie call (They had eventually introduced themselves the other day, which was nice).

Looking up at the call, she watched as Eddie, Bill, Richie, Ben and Stan screeched to a stop in the middle of the empty street next to her. "C'me on! L-let's go!" Bill instructed, not even greeting the young girl.

"What?" Katherine asked, slightly taken aback.

"Hey! What happened to you?" Eddie worried, his eyes zoning in on the band-aid slapped across her left cheek.

"Oh, uh, I fell over" Katherine lied, her hand went to cover the cheek in question as she shifted, the shallow cuts on her back aching in protest.

"Isn't it too hot for that?" Richie cut in, his eyes narrowed to on the woollen turtle neck she wore under her dungarees.

"No" Katherine lied as she shifted again. It _was _quite hot today and the turtleneck wasn't helping matters, even with the sleeves rolled up as far as they would go. But Katherine knew she couldn't wear anything less. What if they saw her back? She'd get in trouble again, for sure.

"O-kay"

"E-enough with the f-fashion questions. B-Beverly wanted to see us" Bill interjected.

"Okay" Clinging tight to Ben as she straddled the back of his bike, they were off, headed straight for the damsel in distress.

* * *

"…No, we gotta go through the alley" Stan argued.

"No, the alley takes way to long" Eddie retorted.

"No, the alley is so much faster"

"The alley is more dangerous and it's disgusting"

"How is it more dangerous?"

"It smells like piss and it's gross! Just take the side streets for once"

"Oh my _God!_ The side streets are the same, they smell like piss and shit" This argument had been going on for some time now and even though they continued to argue, the pair still followed after Bill who headed the group like a man on a mission.

"Okay, okay. Can you just tell me what she said exactly?" Eddie asked as the group neared their destination.

"She didn't any _anything. _She just said that you guys need to hurry over" Stan replied.

"She didn't say anything? Okay, okay"

"You made it. I…" Beverly trailed as she met the group by the side path. "I need to show you something" Beverly nodded towards the fire escape.

"What is it?" Ben asked.

"More than we saw at the Quarry?" Richie sassed.

"Beep beep, Richie!" Eddie snapped.

"My dad will kill me if he finds out…I had boys in the apartment" Beverly admitted.

"Well, I'm not a boy" Katherine replied, slipping from Ben's bike and trotted up the small knoll to join Beverly by her side. Beverly shot her a small smile.

"So w-we'll leave a l-lookout" Bill added as everyone but Richie, dropped their bikes to the ground and raced up the stairs of the fire escape. "Richie, st-stay here"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What if her dad comes back?" Richie protested, swinging his arms out wide.

"Do what you always do: start talking" Stan retorted.

"It is a gift" Richie slumped back onto his seat in defeat.

Up in the apartment, Katherine trailed after the others as they followed Beverly through the halls to one in particular. Katherine stuck close to the older kids, clutching tight to Beverly's hand, very much aware of the dark feeling that hovered around the place. How could someone as nice as Beverly live _here?_

"In there" Beverly stated, coming to a halt and refusing to go forth any further. At the end of the hall, a single door stood closed. A single light could be seen shining out from underneath the door and the flickering hallway light gave everything an eerie glow.

"What is it?" Stan asked.

"You'll see" Beverly replied, unable to put into words what was in there.

"Are you taking-taking us to your bathroom?" Eddie worried, "I j-just want you to know that 89% of the worst accidents in homes are caused in bathrooms. A-a-and, I mean, that's where all the bacteria and fungi are and it's-it's not really a sanitary place for…" His trembling mumbles trailing off into a whimper as Bill pushed open the door.

"I knew it!" Eddie gagged. The sight before them was horrific. Every surface: wall, floor, ceiling and furniture was drenched, absolutely drenched, in blood. Even the shower curtain was sopping wet with the thick stuff.

"Jesus Christ! Who died in here?" Katherine spat out in surprise, clutching tighter to the hand clasped in hers.

"You see it?" Beverly questioned as she squeezed Katherine's hand back in reassurance.

"Yes" Eddie whispered.

"What…what happened in here?" Stan asked the question they were all thinking.

"…My dad couldn't see it. I though I might be crazy" Beverly stated.

"Well, if you're crazy, then we're all crazy" Ben kinda reassured.

"W-we c-can't leave it like this" Bill piped up as he slowly took the first steps into the bright red room.

* * *

It took at least a good hour or so for the group to deep clean the bathroom. Stan took to systemically washing the windows, Bill mopped the floors whilst Ben and Beverly worked in tight quarters to wash the sink area.

At the same time, Katherine had climbed _into _the blood soaked bathtub and was scrubbing away at the blood stains that were stuck there. She felt like Cinderella. The entire time, Eddie stood at the back of the room, wringing out the towels with his inhaler clutched tightly within his teeth as he gagged every now and then.

And now as they were headed away from the once bloody bathroom, Richie was going to town with his complaints as he circled the group as they walked their bikes, like a vulture. "…No, I love being your personal doorman, really. Could you idiots have taken any longer?"

"All right, shut up, Richie" Eddie barked.

"Yeah, shut up, Richie" Stan agreed.

"Oh, okay, trash the trashmouth, I get it. Hey! _I _wasn't the one scrubbing the bathroom floor and imagining that her sink went all Eddie's mum's vagina on Halloween"

"She didn't imagine it" Bill piped up as he came to a stop, "I…s-s-saw something too"

"You saw blood too?" Stan questioned.

"Not blood. I saw…G-G-Georgie. It seemed so real. I mean, it seemed like him, but there was this…"

"The clown" Eddie finished, "Yeah, I saw him too" Around them, every seemed to freeze, tensing at the mention of the clown. Katherine stuffed her shaking hands in her pockets as she stared at the ground. Yeah, she had seen the clown and she _never _wanted to see him again.

"Wait, can only virgins see this stuff? Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?" Richie piped up. Katherine furrowed her brows in confusion at the new word, "What's a 'virgin'?" She asked, tilting her head in question.

"Don't look at me!" Eddie spluttered, red in the face.

"What? I just asked what a 'virgin' was"

"It's you, ya midget" Richie sassed as the group turned away from the curious seven year old. That was _not _a question they wanted to answer.


	8. A Stone's Throw

**_"...Just hate on me,  
__And run your mouth so everyone can hear.  
__Hit me with the worst you've got  
__And knock me down,  
__Baby, I don't care._**

**_Keep it up and soon enough,  
__You'll figure out,  
__You wanna be,__You wanna be  
__A loser like me..."__-__Loser Like Me__, Glee_**

The group made to move on until Eddie recognised the car parked by the side of the road and the sound of distant struggles drifted up through the undergrowth of the Barrens. "Oh shit! That Belch Huggins' car" Eddie cursed, "We should...we should probably get outta here"

"Yeah" Richie agreed.

"Wait, isn't that...the homeschool kid's bike?" Bill pointed out the tipped over bike lying in the grass next to the car.

"Yeah, that's Mike's" Eddie replied.

"W-we have to help him" Beverly stated, looking back to the group for their support.

"We should?" Richie questioned.

"Yes!" Beverly dropped her bike and ran into the bushes with everyone else hot on her heels. Stanley paused a moment to stand his bike properly before taking off after the others into the undergrowth.

They didn't have to run far, using the shouted insults, wicked laughter and primal shouts as beacon to hone in on. "...Eat that meat! Eat it!"

"You little fucker!"

"Bitch!"

"Motherfucker!"

"Eat it, you little bitch!"

"Pussy!"

"Whatcha gonna do, huh?"

"Get up!"

"Get the fuck up!"

"You little fucker!"

"C'me on Henry! Smack him!"

Katherine arrived only seconds after Beverly, her tiny little legs locking up as she skidded to a halt. She happened to glance up just in time to see Henry Bowers blown back by the fist-sized rock that Beverly had launched his way. Bouncing off of his temple, the offending projectile didn't do much damage aside from the small cut on his forehead. However it did serve to push him off of Mike long enough for the boy to scrabble into the safety of his peers.

"Nice throw" Stanley complimented as the boys joined them.

"Thanks" Beverly replied as everyone armed themselves with rocks from the dry riverbed. Katherine even plucked her trusty slingshot from her pocket and gripped it tight in her hands as they waited.

"You losers are trying too hard" Bowers taunted, stalking forward toward his prey. "She'll do you. You just gotta ask nicely, like I did" He grabbed and rubbed his crotch provocatively.

That was the last straw. With a scream of primal rage Ben launched a large rock towards Henry and hit him square on the head and sent the teen & his friends stumbling backwards in surprise. "What the fuck?" Belch exclaimed. Beverly replied with another rock.

"Come on, get 'em! Fuck!" Bowers cursed, he and his friends quickly arming themselves as well.

"ROCK WAR!" Richie declared, only to be knocked down by a rock to the face. It was all out carnage from that moment on. Rocks were flying just like the insults and Katherine made good use of her slingshot retorting to one of Richie's comments that it "wasn't a slingshot, it was a giant slayer"

"Get 'em!"

"Watch out!"

"Fuck you, motherfuckers!"

Eddie even went so far as to jump _into _the river to grab more ammo, much to the surprise of his friends. "Fuck outta here!" Richie cried.

"Ow!"

"Ah shit!"

"Fuck you bitch!"

"Come on guys! Let's get 'em!"

"Fuck this"

"Fuck out of here"

"Fuck you, losers!"

Eventually Victor and Belch were driven from the river, the losers numbers and onslaught greatly outweighing the bullies. Finally only Bowers was left. The onslaught of rocks paused for a moment as Henry stumbled to his feet. "Fuck you, you motherfucking losers! You think you can protect that little shit forever? You'll pay for this! You all will!"

Something in Katherine seemed to snap. How _dare _he try to threaten them? How _dare _he try to scare them! She kept her eyes trained on Henry, locked on her target. With a smirk on her lips and murder in her eyes, she pulled the string taut and let the tiny projectile fly.

"Holy shit!" Richie exclaimed as Henry went down. Hard. "Right in the nuts! Remind not to piss you off. That was fucking surgical!" He turned to Katherine who grinned like the Cheshire cat. The whole clearing seemed to pause as everyone waited to see what would happen next.

With Bowers still a moaning mess on the ground as he clutched to his painfully throbbing groin, the kids slowly began to file out of the clearing one by one, leaving the bully to his misery. But Richie couldn't help and pour salt in the wound. "Go blow your dad, you mullet-wearing asshole!" Richie flipped of Bowers as he walked away.

Katherine rested her chin on Bill's shoulder from where she sat atop his back as he gave her a piggyback back through the Barrens. Passing under the trains tracks, Mike finally broke the amicable silence as the thoughts he had been rolling around in his head, burst forth.

"Thanks guys, but you shouldn't have done that. They'll be after you guys too, now" Said Mike.

"Oh, no, no, no. Bowers? He's always after us" Eddie replied over his shoulder.

"I guess that's one th-thing we all have in common" Bill added.

"Yeah, Homeschool. Welcome to the Losers' Club" Richie ended.

* * *

The next day, the state fair was in full swing when the Losers met up in the town square. Currently, they were crowded around another new missing poster; this time it was Eduardo Corcoran. "They say they part of his hand all chewed up near the Standpipe" Stanley informed them, his voice cracking slightly in fear. Katherine quietly tucked herself into Ben's side as she tried to hide from Sister Agnes who stood across the street enjoying the parade. He didn't seem to mind.

"He asked to borrow a pencil once" Ben commented quietly looking at the poster in question. Bill moved forward to flip up the poster to reveal Betty Ripsom's directly underneath.

"It's like she's been f-forgotten because Corcoran's missing"

"Is it ever going to end?" Stanley worried.

Behind them, Richie fought with the tuba player from the high school band he had pissed off. Both of them struggled over the large instrument in hand and served to distract Katherine from the menacing form of Sister Agnes.

"What are you guys talking about?" Eddie asked, licking his own ice cream as he handed Richie one. Katherine pouted.

"What they always talk about" Richie complained.

"...I actually think it will end" Ben interjected, "For a little while, at least"

"What do you mean?" Asked Beverly furrowing her brows in confusion.

"So I was going over all my Derry research and I charted out all the big events: The Ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley Gang in '35 and the Black Spot in '62...And now kids being...I realised this stuff seems to happen every-"

"Every twenty-seven years" Bill finished.

* * *

A few moments later, the Losers gathered around a park bench across from the large lumberjack statue in the middle of the park. Katherine tucked herself in as tight as she could to the others, practically hugging Stan's legs as she sent furtive glances to the trees around them.

"...Okay, so let me get this straight. It comes out from wherever to eat kids for, like a year? And then what It just goes into hibernation?" Summarised Eddie.

"What? Like a bear?" Katherine questioned, tilting her head as she did so.

"Maybe it's like...What do you call it? Cicadas. Y'know the bugs that come out once every seventeen years" Stanley suggested.

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed" Mike shook his head, "He says that all the bad this that happen in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry"

Katherine shrunk in closer to Stanley if it were at all possible. Was it the Beast? Is that what they were talking about? Or was it that creature that kinda looked like a clown? A terrifying, gut-wrenching clown.

"But it _can't _be one thing" Stanley protested, "We _all _saw something different"

"Maybe" Mike agreed softly, "Or maybe It knows what scares us most and that's what we see"

"Like a nightmare?" Katherine whispered,

"...I-I saw a leper" Eddie admitted, "He was...he was like a walking infection"

"But you didn't" Stanley reiterated, "B-Because it isn't real. None of this is. Not Eddie's leper, or Bill seeing Georgie, or the woman I-I keep seeing" At this point it almost sounded like he was trying to reassure himself.

"She hot?" Richie joked.

"No, Richie! She's not hot! Her face...is all messed up. None of _this _makes _any_ sense. Like Kat said, they're just bad dreams" Stanley snapped.

"I don't think so. I know the difference between a-a bad dream and real life, okay?" Mike retorted.

"What'd you see? You saw something, too?" Eddie questioned.

"Yes" Mike heaved a sigh, "Do you guys know that burned-down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down...Before I was rescued, my mum and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were...pushing and pounding on the door...trying to get to me"

Katherine watched Mike tell his story. He fiddled with his fingers, refusing to look anyone in the eye and stared at the ground as he seemed to relive the nightmare. "But it was too hot...When the firemen finally found them, the skin on their hands had...melted down to the bone"

All around him, his new friends looked sick and frightened as their minds ran wild while Mike told his story. "We're all afraid of something" Mike ended.

"Got that right" Richie glanced over his shoulder to the stage where a child's show was currently in progress.

"Why, Rich? What are you afraid of?" Eddie asked.

"...Clowns" Richie readjusted his glasses, before catching Katherine's eye, "What about you, Midge?" Katherine merely whimpered and buried her face into Stanley's legs.

* * *

Back at the Denbrough household, Eddie was in charge of setting up the projector with Ben's slides, Bill had stuck up the map of Derry's sewers and Stanely pulled the garage door shut, plunging the room into darkness. Everyone else scattered themselves around the projector to watch.

The first slide shown was a map of Derry's township and overlapped seamlessly with the red sewer map already on the wall. "Look. That's where G-Georgie disappeared" Bill pointed to the specific storm drain drawn on the map. "There's the Ironworks and the Black Spot. Everywhere It happens, it's...it's all connected by the sewers. And they all meet up at the-"

"The Well house" Cut in Ben.

"Hey, it's the Hallows house!" Katherine piped up excitedly from her place on the floor at the front of the group. Her eyes followed along the familiarly named streets from the orphanage to the house in question.

"The H-Hallows house?" Questioned Bill.

"Yeah, we play hide 'n seek in there sometimes" Katherine turned to answer over her shoulder.

"You play...in the Neibolt house?" Eddie sucked on his inhaler as his breath quickened.

"Only on Halloween"

"Why? W-Why would you do that?"

"Cause it's fun? But it smells bad. Like dog shit"

"What is she talking about?" Mike quietly asked.

"It's the house on Neibolt street" Stanley repeated.

"It's the creepy-ass house where all the junkie and hobos like to sleep" Richie helpfully added.

"I hate that place, it always feels like it's watching me" Beverly muttered, rubbing the goosebumps along her arms at the thought.

"...That's where I saw it. That's where I saw the clown" Eddie mumbled.

"T-That's where IT lives" Stuttered Bill.

"I cannot imagine anything wanting to live there, _let alone_ play there"

"Can we stop talking about this?!" Eddie burst out as he shot upwards in panic, "I-I-I can barely breathe...This is summer, we're kids. I can barely breathe. I'm up here having a fucking asthma attack! I'm not doing this!" Spinning on his heel, Eddie tore down the map of the sewers and chucked it to the floor. Katherine had to scramble backwards to avoid being hit by both Eddie and the large map.

"What the hell? Put the map back" Bill ordered.

"Mm-mm" Eddie refused as the once still projector continued to flick through the slides showing the Denbrough family photos.

"What happened?" Bill asked himself.

"What's going on?" Stanley worried.

"I got it, hold on" Mike moved forward to help, only to stop when the photos began to click through faster than humanly possible. "Guys?"

Eventually the projector settled on an image of the Denbrough family outside of a cathedral dressed in their best clothes. Only instead of stopping, with each click the frame grew smaller and smaller, moving from a grinning Georgie to Bill's mother who slowly morphed into...something else.

"Bill?" Stanley whispered.

"What the fuck?!" Richie gasped.

"It's It!" Cried Bill as the hair on the screen moved to reveal the menacing grin of the killer clown.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Richie repeated, scared shitless.

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!" Eddie cried as the two clung to each other. As one, the Losers back-pedalled from the screen, fear pouring off of them in waves. With tears streaming down her face, Katherine dived for a nearby cubby hole created by the worktable that backed up against the wall. There, she curled up in a ball with eyes screwed shut, and stayed there whimpering in fear.

"Turn it off! TURN IT OFF!"

"YEAH, YEAH. TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!"

With an almighty kick, Mike knocked the projector to the floor where it clattered to a stop. The unplugged machine continued to slowly click though the slides showing first the clown and then several empty slides.

Eddie wheezed into the frightening silence as the group tried to settle their wildly beating hearts. It was gone. They were okay. At least that's what they thought; for all of a sudden IT burst _from _the screen.

"RUN STANLEY!"

Terrified screams filled the room as IT appeared, moving straight for them with laughter falling its lips. It had to bend over in the little garage as it leered closer to the Losers, laughing and shrieking all the while. All light in the room flashed to pitch black darkness as the clown stalked closer, its crawl more of a scrabble as it moved.

**_FLASH_**

"WHAT IS IT?!"

**_FLASH_**

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

**_FLASH_**

"AHHHH!"

And suddenly IT was gone. Light poured in as the garage door was raised and the Losers were alone once more. Beverly thanked Ben for saving her, before falling into Bill's hug. Around them the others panted as they tried to calm down and wiped away any tears that had gathered in their eyes from relief of fear.

"...Where's Kat?" Ben piped up, not seeing the seven year old amongst the group.

"You don't think It got her, do you? Oh God! Oh God!" Eddie panicked, sucking on his inhaler.

"W-wait. Do you h-hear that?" Said Bill. The group quieted down just enough to hear small sobs coming from across the room.

And there she was. Katherine stared up at the older Losers from her hiding spot with tears and snot streaming down her face. Although fear was still clear on her expression and how she clutched tight to herself in comfort, they were okay.

They were okay. For now.


	9. Into the Belly of the Beast

**_"So you wanna start a war,  
__In the age of icons?  
__So you wanna be immortal,  
__With a loaded gun?  
__So you wanna start a war?  
__So you wanna start a war?..."  
__-Start a War__, Valerie Broussard_**

"I-IT saw us. IT saw...us. IT saw us!" Eddie panicked, sucking on his inhaler. The rest of the Losers stood around him in a clump on the edges of the driveway, toes barely grazing the darkness shrouding the garage. Out in the sunshine, Katherine clung to Stanley like he was her lifeline, burying her face into his back as her tears slowly subsided.

"I-IT saw us and It knows where we are!" Eddie cried.

"IT always did. S-so let's go" Bill solemnly stated, pushing through the group to where his bike lay on the concrete.

"Go? Go where?" Asked Ben, stopping Bill in his tracks.

"To Neibolt. That's where G-Georgie is"

"After _that?"_ Question Stanley, gesturing to the forgotten projector.

"Yeah, i-it's summer...we should be outside" Richie agreed.

"If you say 'its summer' one more f-fucking time...!" Snapped Bill before turning on his heel.

"Bill!" Beverly cried as Bill rode off like a man possessed. "Bill! Wait!"

* * *

"BILL!" Beverly cried, barely braking as she jumped from her bike at the border of the Neibolt house. The rest of the Losers filed in behind her with Katherine & Eddie bringing up the rear. "Bill, you can't go in there! This is crazy!"

"Look, you don't have to come in with me" Bill's voice cracked as he choked up, "But what happens when another Georgie goes missing? Or another Betty? Or another Ed Corcoran? Or one of us? Are _you_ just going to pretend that it isn't happening, like everyone else in this town?"

Tears gathered in Bill's eyes as he continued on, "...Because I can't...I go home and all I see that Georgie isn't there and his clothes, his toys, his stupid stuffed animals, but...he isn't. So walking into this house...for me, it's easier than walking into my own"

"Wow" Richie breathed watching Bill walked up to the old decrepit door as he wiped away the gathering tears.

"What?" Murmured Katherine.

"He didn't stutter once"

"Wait!" Stanley cried out as Richie and Ben moved to follow after Bill. "Um...shouldn't we have some people keep watch? Y'know just in case something bad happens" Stanley looked around for support from the others, but they refused to meet either his or Bill's eyes, unable to visually take a side.

"W-Who wants to stay out here?" Asked Bill, his hand still firmly grasped on the doorknob. Simultaneously, all the boys raised their hands. Only Beverly and Katherine did not, but for two completely different reasons.

While Beverly wanted to support her crush, Katherine hadn't really been listening as she was once more staring over her shoulder and back down the street in the direction of the orphanage, where she could just see the tufts of the roofs poking out above the other suburban life blocks.

"Fuck"

* * *

After having drawn lots, Eddie, Richie and Katherine reluctantly followed Bill into the house. Whilst both Eddie and Richie had drawn the shorter straws, Katherine was the only one within the group who had actually been _in _the house before and so it was only logical that she would go with the group. But that didn't mean she had to like it; she made sure to stick close to the boys at all times.

"Can't believe I pulled the short straw. You guys are lucky we're not measuring dicks" Richie complained as the old door swung on its hinges, creaking and groaning as it opened inwards.

"Beep beep, Richie" Eddie automatically replied. Katherine pulled a face of disgust; at the house or the comment she wasn't really sure.

Upon moving further into the front room, Katherine was able to see that not much had changed since the last time she had been in here. Even during the day, the interior of the house was drenched in darkness curtesy of the shoddily boarded up windows.

Cobwebs and overgrown weeds climbed over most of the house & everything within, creating the illusion of a cheesy Halloween haunted house. Off to the right sat the large living room where several wooden chairs were arranged in a circle around the room and a web-covered harpsichord stood in the corner by the archway. And off to the left smaller parlour room where an old chaise sat poised on the back wall.

"I can smell it" Eddie gagged, but Katherine wasn't sure what he was referring to. Probably the scent of dead...something that always seemed to linger within the building.

"Don't breathe through your mouth" Richie warned as he explored the overgrown parlour room.

"How come?"

"Cause then you're eating it" Eddie gagged and fumbled for his inhaler, practically sucking it dry in his panic.

Leaving Eddie to sort himself at the threshold of the living room, Katherine tiptoed her way over the creaking floorboards as she explored the room a little more. The ashen fire pit in the middle of the room still overflowed with the burnt leftovers beneath the blanket of cobwebs and the rickety chairs still sat gathered in a circle around the pit.

Nothing really seemed to be out of place, and Katherine couldn't help but feel relieved when she everything as she last remembered it. The only odd thing was the bowl of hard boiled sweets that lay in old ornate glass bowl atop the harpsichord. But was that really out of place? Junkies and hobos liked to frequent this place; it was a squatters paradise after all. Well, kind of.

Foregoing any sense of caution, Katherine plucked an orange and white striped sweet from the bowl and happily went about enjoying it. At least until Eddie intervened. "Kat, what are you doing?" Scolded Eddie upon spotting Katherine with the sweet mere centimetres from her tongue. Katherine paused, looking very much as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"It's just a sweet, Eddie" Katherine replied, defiantly plopping said sweet into her mouth. Much to the disgust of Eddie who gagged and stormed over to the younger brunette, intent on removing the sweet from her mouth.

"Spit it out"

"No" Katherine twisted away from Eddie's prying fingers, trying her best to defend against his attacks.

"C'me on!"

"No!"

"You don't even know where it's been!"

"I don't care!"

Eventually, Eddie was able to launch his nimble fingers into her mouth and yank the offending object of her mouth and chuck it over his shoulder where it bounced and rolled under one of the loose floorboards.

"Aw!" Katherine pouted, watching it roll away as Eddie furiously wiped his fingers on his shirt and sucked on his inhaler.

"Why would you even eat that? Don't you know how gross that is?" Eddie grumbled as he grabbed ahold of Katherine's wrist and dragged her over to where Richie and Bill were gathered in the parlour room across from them.

"It wasn't even dirty" Katherine groused, allowing herself to be dragged away.

Over in the parlour room, Richie held a large weathered missing poster with his own face printed squarely on the front. "What?" Bill asked, coming to stand next to Richie as he began to panic.

"I-it says I'm missing"

"Y-you're not missing, Richie" Reassured Bill.

"West Norman, city of Derry...That's my shirt! That's my hair! That's my face!"

"Calm down, this isn't real" Bill made to take away the poster but Richie held it in a firm grip. Katherine felt Eddie's grip tighten around her wrist as the pair watched the scene play out; not that she could blame him.

"That's my name! That's my age! That's the date!"

"Gimme it, Richie!"

"No, it says! It says I'm missing! Am I gonna go missing?!"

"Richie! Calm down! Calm down!" Bill tossed away the poster and gripped onto Richie's forearms holding him in place, "Look at me, Richie. Look at me. T-that isn't real. It's playing tricks on you" Slowly Richie was able to calm down, at least enough to regain his bearings for the moment.

"Hello?" A weak call, followed by moans and scrabbling noises sounded from up on the second landing. Katherine backed into Eddie when the quartet turned as one to face the direction the faint and creepy call had come from. "Help me, please!" The voice cried.

Katherine clung tight to Eddie's hand, sticking close to him as the pair trudged up the stairs after Eddie and Bill. Following the voice, they found the source of it to be a girl that Katherine didn't recognise, but the boys certainly did. She was lain out on the floor, the upper half of her torso could be seen through the open door, but her legs were still hidden behind the wall.

"B-Betty?" Whispered Bill.

"Ripsom?" Added Richie. Coughing up blood, Betty looked up at them, upon their arrival with her hair askew as her tired eyes raked over them. There was a moment where neither party moved, too surprised to see the other. That was until Betty was pulled backwards by her feet, her scream bouncing off of the walls as she went.

Bill led the charge, the very wary and slow charge, towards the room in which Betty had just occupied. Pushing the creaking door all the way open, they were able to see that the room was complete empty, save for an old mattress at the back of the room.

"She was just here, where the fuck did she go?" Richie asked, peering over Bill's shoulder. Katherine, having detached from Eddie, moved to latch onto Bill's shirt where she buried her shaking fists in the flannel cloth. This was _not_ like any of the nights they had spent here on Halloween.

Katherine jumped at the loud sound at their backs. Behind them, the bedroom door slammed shut. Sure it was an old house, and they did things that other houses didn't do. But to slam the door shut like that? It was almost as if something or...someone had done it. Eddie's shouts on the other side didn't help matters.

"Guys! Guys!" Eddie cried as he ran down the never-ending hall.

"W-wha-? Eddie!" Bill ran forth, ripping himself out of Katherine's grip, leaving her huddled in the centre of the room. He frantically tried the doorknob, only to find it locked.

"Ah! What the fuck!"

**_CREAK! _**

"AHHHH!"

**_THUD!_**

"Eddie!" Bill continued to shake the doorknob even when he could no longer hear his friend on the other side. "Eddie! Open the door! You okay? Eddie what's going on? Eds! Eddie!"

Katherine stood furiously fiddling with her pendant as she worried over her friends. Not only was Eddie alone on the other side of that door, but now Richie had disappeared into the adjacent room as well. She had thought of going after Richie, but then Bill would be alone. Besides how could she help? What had she _really _done to help upon entering the house? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Suddenly the pendant she had been rubbing slipped from her fingers and trailed along the floor. Shit. If she lost that pendant, she'd spend the weekend in solitary for sure. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that Bill was still occupied with the door and Richie was exploring the room to her right.

Drawing on what little courage she had left, Katherine chased after the pendant as it rolled across the room and through the open door that sat furthest from Bill's, on the right. Stamping her feet every now and then as she tried to pin down the runaway pendant, Katherine didn't realise how far she had gotten before the door slammed shut behind her, shutting her in the darkness.

Blinking rapidly at the sudden blackness, Katherine slowly moved forward, imitating a zombie with her hands outstretched as she moved towards the one source of light in the hallway where her pendant had finally stopped moving.

Bumping into the occasional side table and open door, Katherine finally made it to the spotlight in the centre of the hallway where her pendant had become entangled in the brambles that burst in through the open window at the end of the hall.

Pushing one hand through the prickly bush, it took a few tries for her to grasp the silver pendant, her chubby fingers only just scraping the metal as she picked it up. Garnering a couple of scratches up her arm and face, she pulled back her arm with a grin on her face when she saw her prize griped tightly in her hand.

However upon closer inspection, the pendant was stained a motley red, digging into every crack and crevice. While Katherine was inspecting her suddenly stained necklace, the brambles above her creaked and groaned; leering over her.

Looking up at the gnarled branches above her, what she saw scared her to her very core. Staring back at her were two sunken eyes embedded in the unerringly familiar face of a creature she didn't want to see ever again. It's mouth creaked open to reveal a gaping cavern absolutely _filled _with monstrous arachnids that scrambled this way and that; over the wooden flesh of the Beast.

A wailing scream pierced the air.


	10. Haunted Huntings

**_"Shhh! Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits" -__Looney Tunes__, Elmer Fudd_**

A wailing scream pierced the air, bouncing off of the walls around them. It took a moment for Katherine to realise that it was her that was screaming. Fearful tears raced down her cheeks as she stared up at the Beast through bleary vision, frozen to the spot.

Absentmindedly, she noticed that there was banging on the door at the end of the hall behind her, that belonged to Bill and Richie. For the moment, fear held her in place, frozen with her heart trying to burst though her chest and stained pendant gripped tight in a white-knuckled grip.

The Beast barely flinched before she was off and racing back down the hall, her feet flying over the crumpled rolls in the carpet. Behind her, the thumping sounds of hurried heavy footsteps followed close behind. Katherine could have sworn she felt the Beast breathing down her neck as she ran.

"Ka-the-rine! Have you come to light my lantern, Ka-the-rine?"

A quick glance in the large crooked cracked, mirror on the wall showed her that the Beast was indeed right behind her, his skeletal fingers brushing through the little wispy hairs that had escaped her braids. It only served to drive her faster.

In the end she all but slammed into the door at the end of the hall, only to find it locked. "C'me on! C'me on! Open! Open!" Katherine sobbed, rattling the doorknob and banging on the door with all her might. A quick glance over her shoulder showed that the Beast was still closing in and fast.

"Bill! Richie! Open the door!" Katherine sobbed, her vision now nothing but coloured blurs. Through her hysteria, she was just able to make out Bill and Richie on the other side, trying to open the door as well.

Another look back at the Beast had her pressing her back against the door as a thick line of drool fell from its wooden lips and onto her face. A skeletal finger ran itself along her cheek and collected some of the tears that continued to fall. A whimper escaped her lips as Katherine screwed her eyes shut.

Suddenly the door she was leaning against was wrenched open and she fell into the room beyond with a startled yelp. "What the fuck is that?!" She heard Richie exclaim from beside her upon sighting the Beast which slunk back into the shadows as fleshy hands grabbed her under her arms and hauled her upright.

Katherine heard the door slam shut as she turned and buried herself into Bill's stomach, grasping tight onto the back of his shirt as she exploded into sobs."A-are you okay, K-Kat?" Bill asked.

"I wanna go home" Katherine whimpered, not lifting her head from it was buried. A hand rested itself on her head, running it fingers through her hair in a calming motion.

"Let's get outta here" Said Richie.

Only there was a commotion off to the right where the old tattered mattress lay at the back of the bedroom the caught their attention. Peeking out from Bill's (now wet) shirt, Katherine looked over towards the familiar childish laughter that could be heard as the mattress shook, rattling the rusted springs within.

Finally a _very _dirty version of Eddie burst forth. Just the head, nothing else. "You wanna play loogie?" Eddie asked, before gagging and spewed forth pitch black tar that burnt anything and everything it touched. Eddie's laughter turned maniacal as he shook like he was having a seizure before disappearing altogether. But that didn't stop the tar from spreading.

Back pedalling away from the burning tar, the trio found themselves faced with the same three doors, only now they had blood red graffiti scrawled across them. From left to right, they read:

_NOT SCARY AT ALL / SCARY / VERY SCARY_

It seemed like a no brainer to go for the door labelled _NOT SCARY AT ALL. _So Bill and Richie raced for the door with Katherine hot on their heels. Wrenching open the door on the left, the trio were met with a pitch black hallway and a familiar creepy voice. "Where's my shoe?" Asked Betty.

Cautiously, Bill flicked on the light switch to reveal the top half of Betty Ripsom dangling by her wrists from the ceiling of the hallway like some sort of macabre ornament. "AH! Where the fuck were her legs?!" Richie screamed, both he and Bill slamming the door shut as the tar continued to creep closer. "Oh shit! What the fuck was that?!"

"T-this isn't real. Remember the missing kid poster? That wasn't real, so this isn't real. C'me on, ready?" Bill pushed Richie and Katherine behind him as he opened the first door once more.

"No!" Richie cried as Bill wrenched open the door again. This time, a regular old hallway was revealed behind the door.

"Oh thank fuck!" Richie breathed, clutching tight to Bill's arm as Katherine hung in close to his other side.

"Where's Eddie?" Asked Bill.

"HELP!" Eddie's voice floated up the stairs, "HELP!"

* * *

Following Eddie's screams, the trio burst into the kitchen to find the terrifying clown perched atop Eddie with one of his gloved hands covering Eddie's ashen face. "EDDIE!" Richie cried, stopping short at what he found. "...Oh fuck...Eddie!"

"This isn't real enough for you, Billie?" The clown taunted, turning to Bill, "I'm not real enough for you?"

"Holy shit" Richie breathed. Katherine just whimpered, somehow this creature was more terrifying in the musty daylight of the kitchen than the dark shadows of solitary.

"It was real enough for Georgie!" The clown's expression turn wicked before it launched itself forward with maniacal laughter flowing from its lips.

All of a sudden, Beverly appeared with a war cry, shoving a piece of the iron railing straight through the head of It, piercing the right eye. It was odd how it bled, almost like it was defying the laws of physics. Instead of dripping to the floor like anything usually would, the little droplettes of blood floated upwards as little moans and whimpers fell from It's lips.

"Get Eddie!" Richie cried, the first to break from his reverie as the trio at the back skirted around It, passing by Ben, Mike & Stanley who had also trailed in after Beverly, and moved towards the opposite end of the room where Eddie still lay, injured.

Katherine, who had been using Mike as a human shield, let out a low keening noise as It turned on its heel with an animalistic growl. It seemed ignorant of their pleading cries and sobbed panics as it advanced on the quartet at the back of the room.

Tensions ran high. The pike in his head didn't seem to bother him anymore as his face shifted around the intrusion and continued stalking closer to its prey, its hands now morphing into the skeletal hands of the Beast.

_RAWR!_

IT lunged forward, taunting the Losers, before retreating with a hysterical giggle. Ben, Mike and Stanley who had crept in through the door in an attempt to skirt around its back, were plum out of luck as It slashed a clawed hand straight through Ben's stomach, causing him to fall to the floor with a pained cry on his lips. With the Losers occupied with Eddie and Ben, IT slunk from the room like a guilty pet. Promise of revenge clear in its eyes.

"Don't let IT get away!" Bill cried, racing after the injured creature. Ignoring the protests of his friends, he followed after It, down the basement steps where he saw IT disappear down the cracked and crumbling well. IT's eyes shimmered in the moonlight, almost daring him to follow after.

"BILL! WE HAVE TO HELP EDDIE!" Beverly cried, pulling Bill from his thoughts of revenge and back into the kitchen where everyone else was still gathered. He hurried over to Edie's side.

"I'M GONNA SNAP IT BACK INTO PLACE!" Richie declared.

"DO NOT TOUCH ME! DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH ME!" Snapped Eddie.

"NO, NO, NO!" Mumbled Beverly behind her hand as Richie paid them no mind and popped Eddie's wrist back into place.

_SNAP!_

And through it all, Katherine watched from the doorway as her friends nearly succumbed to the monstrous creature that prowled Derry. With hurried footsteps, the Losers piled themselves onto their bikes with Eddie sitting in Mike's basket and Katherine taking Eddie's bike.

Unfortunately, the group only got so far before they had to screech to a stop to avoid the well-dressed woman standing in the middle of the road with her arms crossed. "Who the fuck is this?" Demanded Richie, "Is this IT?"

"Language, young man!" The woman was dressed up like a nun, garbed in the offical habit of the _Saint Ursula's Home for Children._

However this is not what gave Katherine pause. With a white knuckled-grip on the bike's handlebars and shaking limbs, Katherine stared up at the woman with poorly contained fear. Her eyes were blown wide as Mother strode over to her and bent down at the waist so as to speak with her, ignorant of the prying eyes.

"Sister Maria tells me you've been playing with the Devil. Is this true, Katherine?" Mother asked gently, her tone unable to hide the malicious shining in her eyes.

"..."

"Well?"

"N-No...Mother" Katherine squeaked.

_SLAP!_

Katherine's head snapped to the side with the force of the slap. Her cheek burnt red and new tears stung her eyes. "Don't lie to me now" A finger was pointed in her face and a rosary hung from the clasped hand.

"I-I'm not! I swear!"

"...Hm. It seems Sister Agnes' lessons haven't been through to you. Maybe some alone time will help sort that out"

"No! W-wait! I'll be good! I promise!" Katherine begged as Mother manhandled her off of the bike and pulled her frightened form back down the street, towards the orphanage.

"Run along, now dears" Mother stopped to speak over her shoulder at the rest of the Losers before carrying on, ignoring the looks she was receiving.

It wouldn't be until later, when Katherine was locked up once more in solitary, cowering against the back wall with blood dripping from her fresh wounds, that she would notice the similarities between Mother Superior and the Beast.


	11. Fast Food

**"_This night ain't for the holy man  
__With the holy plan  
__For the promise land  
__This night we got the evil hand  
__And the evil hand gonna raise the dead_**

**_Ain't no sleep when the wicked play...  
__Ain't no love when the wicked run...  
__We're the wicked ones, wicked ones"  
__-Wicked Ones__, Dorothy_**

The days blanketed in darkness seemed to tick by ever so slowly. Seconds melted into minutes, minutes into hours and hours into days. Or at least that's what it felt like to Katherine, with her days only marked by the ever bland meals delivered when she woke & before she slept.

Somedays, she would wake to Sister Michael standing in the light of the doorway with _'Nothing' _gripped taut between her petite hands and other days Sister Agnes would be praying over her with a well-loved copy of the bible and a beaded rosary in her hands. And all the while, classical hymns blasted from the speakers above her.

Katherine curled herself tighter underneath the scratchy blanket provided as she clamped her hands over her ears in a futile attempt to block out the braying tones of the Derry Elderly Choir as they sung yet another verse of _'Were you There?'_

There was little to down here, if at all and a lot of the time Katherine let herself get lost in her own imagination. Something which wasn't necessarily a good thing at times. _What if IT was done here with her? What if they had never escaped Neibolt? What if this was all fake? What if? What if? What if? _Her thoughts would whirl around in her head, bashing against each other as if they were trying to escape her brain like bumper cars at the fair.

She felt like she was going mad, mumbling to herself as she paced about the room, fiddling with her hands. Sometimes she would pause and shake her head as if she were arguing with herself before spinning on her heel and head off towards the other end of the room. No wonder Sister Agnes had performed an exorcism or two.

And that was another thing, during the first few days of her confinement, the Sisters had stuck to a relatively strict schedule, bringing meals down at regular intervals, cleaning out the tin bucket she used and so on. That was until they stopped caring.

Slowly their presence in the dim cell began to decrease, from half an hour at first, to an hour or two and so on until they would no longer appear. Katherine almost found herself _wishing _for Sister Agnes to be praying over her or for Sister Michael to be standing there with _'Nothing' _clasped tightly in her hands. Anything to stop this melancholy loneliness that shrouded her as her stomach roared for the umpteenth time that day.

**_RATTLE!_**

Katherine froze in place. _What was that? _There was no one else down there but her, the Sisters having not returned after removing her meal tray that morning. Peeking out from underneath the blanket, Katherine's gaze swept over the dark room, her eyes adjusted long ago to the darkness around her.

Nothing seemed out of place. The large mirror was still stuck to the wall and the speakers above her crackled as they flicked over to the next hymn on the cassette. A weak breeze lazily blew around the room courtesy of the open door and the leather shackle around her ankle rubbed as she tried to sink further beneath the blanket around her.

**_CLANK!_**

Eyes snapped over to the right where the once occupied bucket now lay on the ground, spilling its contents onto the ground. Katherine wrinkled her nose when the stench of piss filled the air as her eyes searched everywhere for what might've caused the bucket to tip over.

_Maybe it was rat? _Katherine thought, which wasn't all that unlikely. _A really, really big rat...With molten eyes and glistening vampire fangs. _Her thoughts trailed off as her eyes caught on those of the creature filling the doorway across from her, haloed by the light outside.

Fear gripped Katherine like she had never felt before as she huddled as far into the blanket as she could go. IT was here. No words were exchanged, no hypnotising taunts or bribes fell from the clown's mouth. There was no need. Instead, a wicked grin split the creature's face quite literally from ear to ear as rows upon rows of twisting teeth were revealed.

One moment IT had been standing across from her and the next IT had ripped her from the bed, the itchy blanket now forgotten on the floor, and hoisted up to meet its demonic maw. Low keening whimpers fell from Katherine's lips as she felt the hand around her throat squeeze tighter and tighter, cutting off what oxygen she had.

Much to her dismay, the clown's jaw seemed to unhinge as IT's face peeled backwards like an orange to reveal even more rows of teeth descending down into the fleshy throat of the creature. With a choked yelp, Katherine instinctively slammed her eyes shut against the blinding white lights flittering around down the clown's throat.

Tears dripped from her eyes, both from fear and the pain she felt at the sudden reintroduction to light after oh so many days in darkness. Even with her eyes scrunched shut, Katherine could still feel the blinding heat from the lights burning against her lids and yet she refused to open her eyes.

This seemed to frustrate It for some reason, or confuse it at least as the blinding heat backed off for a moment or two and the hold around her neck loosened if only so she could gulp in large mouthfuls of sweet, sweet air. And even then, she refused to open her eyes,_ If this is what is keeping me alive, then so be it._

Her thoughts soon changed however when a mind-numbingly hurtful pain shot up and down her small body. A high-pitched screech rose from her throat and bounce off of the cell walls, echoing straight back at her.

She could practically _feel _the rotating teeth in her shoulder grazing against her bones and her pain-filled screeches slowly turned to full-on wails directed into the clown's ear. And still IT didn't release the tight hold it had on her shoulder.

_I don't wanna die. _Katherine thought as large gnarly hands gripped at her much smaller body. A body which had begun to tip forward into the waiting arms of the monster she so despised. With eyes still glued shut, Katherine prayed to _anyone _for help as true darkness claimed her for their own.

* * *

Mother Superior sat atop a stiff wooden throne behind the large mahogany desk in her office. Around her sat piles and piles of paperwork, some already filed away, others in the process and some still needed filling out first.

Behind her, the evening sun shone through the large bay windows, dancing around the room and glancing off of every surface. Leaning back in her chair with a sigh, Mother Superior let her gaze wander over the many filing cabinets that lined the walls, to the large glass cases that held old relics of the orphanage and finally landed on her most prized possession. The large well worn and well-loved leather belt still held small rivulets of blood from the last punishment it issued, falling slightly over the neatly embroidered title. A small smile graced her lips as she glanced at the object in question, oh yes, what wonders she had done with that belt.

Turning from the bloodied belt, Mother Superior happened to glance up at something outside her window as it passed by. It turned out to be a simple red balloon that had happened to catch her eye. Her small smile grew as she returned to the paperwork in front of her. Way down below, in the pits of the orphanage, all screams were no more.

Like most of the adults within Derry, the Sisters of Saint Ursula's _knew_ that something was related to the disappearances of the children. They believed it to be something...demonic in origin and they weren't that far off. Not really. And so it was, that a...tradition of sorts, was established.

Children who weren't sorted out by the stays in solitary, were pimped and polished before being hand-delivered to the gates of Hell. Or the closest thing you could get. It was why the Sisters didn't mind the children playing in the Neibolt house; if a child were to go missing? (like many of them had) Then what was one less mouth to feed?

Simply put, they were offerings. Something to appease the demonic creature that lived within the rickety house on the corner of Neibolt and Turner street. Of course, a meal had to be prepared before it could be cooked.


	12. To War

**"..._Sometimes the curiosity can kill the soul but leave the pain  
__And every ounce of innocence is left inside her brain  
__And through the looking glass we see she's faithfully returned  
__But now off with her head I fear is everyone's concern..."-__Her Name is Alice__, Shinedown_**

All around her, the scent of rotten eggs mixed with burnt popcorn clogged Katherine's nose as she aimlessly wandered around the edges of the large cavern. Hidden behind the large twisting tower of junk, she was almost afraid to admit that she had cowered underneath an upturned desk when IT had reemerged.

There was no doubt in her mind that IT knew that she was there, however with its attention focused solely on Beverly, IT paid her no mind. What was a seven year old supposed to do against a shapeshifting killer clown anyway?

Still, even when her eyes focused on the scene before her, some part of her still fought against the idea that this was even real. Ever since Katherine had been dragged down into the sewers, the clown had bombarded her with illusions and bad dreams; falsehoods that drew her spirits up and then shot them down.

It showed her countless images of the Losers rushing through the slime-covered pipes to save her only to meet their end in some gruesome fashion. Sometimes they would be able to reach her in time, whilst other times they would be swallowed up before they could even make it inside. And always-ALWAYS- they had been able to touch her or call out to her in some way. _Bad dreams weren't supposed to touch you, right? So did this mean it was all real? Am I already dead? Is this what Mother Superior meant by Hell?_

Exhaustion pulled at her bones, digging deep and dragging her down as she tried to fight against the waking nightmares and dancing lights around the edges of her vision; but as time drew on, they sucked more and more out of her until she had to physically cling to the tower of discarded toys to stay somewhat upright.

Sagging fully onto one of the upturned rusty wagons that jutted out from the base of the tower, Katherine let her weight go, slipping further and further into the fear encrusted nightmares that IT was fuelling her with. It was through half-lidded eyes and blurry vision that she watched the next series of events unfold.

Beverly, who had awoken only moments before, stumbled her way over to the large cast-iron door that was bolted shut at the other end of the sewer cavern. With retched sewerage water and miscellaneous sludge clinging to every inch of her tiny body, Katherine couldn't blame Beverly for missing her slumped form from across the dimly lit room. And if she had turned to see her, no doubt she would have mistaken her for a large rag doll with the way she was laying.

When Beverly officially noticed the large tower of discard toys in the centre of the room, she followed its twisting form up, up, up to the hatched skylight up on the surface. Circling the tower itself was the bodies of the other missing children; the older ones that were no more than skeletons and hair by that point, circulated the top of the spire whilst the newer additions were towards the bottom. _Easier access, I guess?_

And all of them? All the bodies? They lay about in postures of relative ease like they had fallen asleep at a desk or laying about in bed and yet despite these relaxed forms, expressions of terror were engraved on their faces. Terrified expressions that were matched with blank, glazed-over eyes that stared out into the nothing.

Katherine's tired eyes followed Beverly's movements as the strawberry-blonde yanked fruitlessly on the solid cast-iron door that was blocking her way. The creaking and crying of the iron door quickly ceased with the sudden addition of a cartoony announcer, like the ones you heard at the carnival.

"Step right up, Beverly! Step right up!" The voice crackled through the eerie silence of the cavern. Beverly turned around slowly with tense shoulders as she placed the iron door to her back and Jack-in-the-box music began to play. "...Don't change, come float. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll fear, you'll die!" The music's tempo picked up, "...Introducing: Pennywise the dancing clown! Hahahahahaha!"

**_CRE~AK! THUD!_**

A low keening whine fell from Katherine's lips even though her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton; one that was hidden behind the sound of the rusted hinges holding the stage door up. Down dropped the wall behind the Jack-in-the-box to reveal a decrepit old stage with orange tinted cutouts and mouldy fringe hanging across the front.

A burst of sparkly fireworks exploded at the front of the stage making both Beverly and Katherine flinch at the sudden noise (by now Katherine was sick of the jump-scares) and ear-splitting, forcefully happy carnival music began to play. From behind the smoke screen created by the fireworks, appeared a sullen Pennywise with his glowing beady eyes locked entirely onto Beverly.

He did an odd little dance, where his legs seemed to flail back and forth whilst his arms moved up and down as if he were trying to imitate riding a horse. Fear crawled down Katherine's throat, choking her as the music grew louder and louder with each thumping step, and Beverly, who fearfully tore her eyes away from the clown noticed the tunnel across the way which was unbarred.

Katherine barely caught the moment when Beverly sucked in a breath and decided to make a break for it. The strawberry-blonde barely got a couple of steps away from the wall before Pennywise pounced at her with a cackling laugh.

Grabbing her by the throat, IT hoisted a struggling Beverly up into the air with a grin as it mocked her fearful struggles. "Hahaha! Ah! Ah! Ah!" It mocked as Beverly continued to struggle.

"I'm...not afraid of...you" Beverly gasped, scratching at the tight hands around her throat. IT seemed to take her challenge at face value as it pulled her close and gave her a deep sniff before tossing its head aside with a grimace.

"You will be!" IT growled tightening its hold as a grin quite literally split its face open. IT's jaws unhinged like a snake forcing its eyes to roll up into the back of IT's head and rows upon rows of shark-like teeth were revealed.

Katherine could only watch as Beverly's gaze locked onto the three balls of glowing light that danced around each other deep with the cavern of IT's throat; the same three balls that Katherine had glimpsed earlier in the bowels of the orphanage.

_That's weird, why isn't she doing anything? _Katherine absently wondered at Beverly's reaction. For whatever reason, as soon as Beverly gazed upon the glowing balls, her body grew limp, her eyes glazed over and It let her go, allowing her to float a few meters above the ground.

Licking its lips, IT disappeared into the sewer tunnels when loud childish cries caught its attention, leaving an unresponsive Beverly floating in the air and an exhausted Katherine slumped over in a pile of heavy limbs behind him. _Bad dream! It's just a bad dream! It's not real! It's not real! _Katherine chanted over and over, curling up into a ball as the voices of the other Losers' echoed around the cavern yet again, _Not real! Not real! It's not! It's not real!_

* * *

Katherine must've dozed off at some point because when she forced her bleary eyes to open once more, the eerie carnival music had stopped and had been replaced by worried voices of Eddie, Richie, Mike, Stanley & Ben and their rushed movements as the group sloshed through the cavern's sewerage water.

"Beverly?"

"Bev!"

"Beverly!"

"Holy shit!"

"Bev!"

"H-How...how is she in the air?" Stanley stammered looking up at the prone girl in question. There was no answer, instead Eddie added a question of his own. With his gaze turning from Beverly's floating form to the towering spire before them, his breath caught in his throat. "...G-Guys...are those...?"

"...The missing kids!" Stanley ended when the rest of them followed his gaze upwards. "...Floating"

"H-Help me get her down!" Ben ordered, turning from the spire as Mike and Richie helped hoist him into the air enough for him to grab a hold of Beverly's ankles and gently yank her down. With her feet firmly planted on the ground, Beverly was rooted in place by the boys and yet still unable to respond no matter how hard they tried. "Bev! Beverly! WHY ISN'T SHE WAKING UP? WHTA IS WRONG WITH HER?" Ben cried shaking the strawberry-blonde. Katherine let her eyes slide away as Ben's painful cries echoed all around them, "BEVERLY PLEASE! C'MON!"

"Bev?" Ben whispered when the strawberry-blonde seemed to regain herself after his panicked kiss.

"January embers..." Beverly murmured, not fully aware just yet.

"My heart burns there too..." Replied Ben.

"Jesus fuck!" Richie swore bringing the two in for a hug where he was soon joined by Mike and Stanley.

_Maybe this is a good dream..._Katherine mused as she felt herself tip over the edge of the wagon and fall to the watery floor with a plop and splash. Her limbs sprawled out amongst the sludgy water and it lapped against her face she stared upwards through puffy eyes at the cavern's ceiling.

"Holy shit!"

"What the fuck was that?!"

"I-is that Kat?"

"Holy fuck!"

"Kat!"

"Midget!"

"Katherine!"

"Katherine! What's wrong with her? Katherine!" Someone shook her shoulder as if trying to wake her up.

_I sure hope so. _Staring down at her, Katherine was able to make out the worried and panicked-stricken faces of the Losers (minus Bill). A tired and watery smile drifted across her face when she saw them crowded there. _I really, really hope this is a good dream..._

Some part of her was afraid to ask in case this was just some cruel twisted joke from the clown, not that she would put it passed him, but it almost seemed to good to be true and she needed to know for sure.

With cotton-laden mouth Katherine spoke up for the first time since awakening down here. "...R-real?"

"W-What?" Stanley stuttered at the quiet question, all other voices suddenly halted as she spoke once more.

"Y-You...real?"

"What are you talking about? Course We're real!" Richie interjected tearily. Gritting her teeth, Katherine put all of her effort into pushing a heavy limb upwards to shakily poke Mike in the cheek. When flesh met flesh, Katherine felt her tired puffy eyes widen in excitement as she continued to poke and prod the boy. "Really...real?"

"Really" Beverly affirmed from her right as she hooked her arms under the seven year old's armpits and heaved her upright before pulling her into a tight hug, mindless of the sludge-coating and let Katherine's head rest against her own wildly beating heart.

"Are you okay, Kat?" Mike asked gripping tight to the outstretched tiny pruned hand as Beverly hugged her tight. New tears poured from Katherine's eyes, renewing the tear tracks already on her face as Beverly buried her face in the child's hair and the other boys huddled in close, forming a wall of comfort as if to hide her away from the horrors within the sewers.

" 'M tired" Katherine muttered as her eyes roved over Richie, Eddie, Ben, Stanley, Mike and back again, "Where's Billy?"


	13. Fight these Tiny Fists

**_"...The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives" -__Game of Thrones_**

Though the elder Losers had no answer to the tiredly asked innocent question, it still took Katherine to point it out before any of them took any real notice. After collecting themselves somewhat, the Losers followed the sound of voices around the corner of the spire until they found a teary-eyed Billy facing off against an injured Georgie who looked very much alive. From her position on Stanley's back with her chin resting on his shoulder, Katherine watched as her classmate and his brother seemingly talked about nonsensical things.

"...Take me home, Billy" Georgie whined, the one hand clutching to the paper boat, "I wanna go home! I miss you! I wanna be with Mum & Dad!"

"I want...more than _anything_ for you...to be home" Billy choked out through a veil of tears, "With Mum...& Dad. I missed you _so_ much" He trudged forward through the sludge towards his little brother until he was in arms reach.

"I love you Billy"

"...Love you too" Billy sniffed hard as he stepped in closer still and raised Mike's silver cattle gun to Georgie's forehead. The younger boy whimpered and teared up, trying to pull at the elder boy's heartstrings (not that it didn't work). Bill closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

**_BANG!_**

Although Katherine wanted to turn away from the scene in front of her, she found that she couldn't, it was like watching a car crash, you couldn't help but watch. The sound of the cattle gun going off echoed around the large cavern and the squelch that followed the large silver bullet entering Georgie's brain as it buried itself there.

**_THUNK!_**

Georgie fell backwards, landing with a small splash in the sludge at their feet. Despite Bill's earlier words, Katherine couldn't help the feeling of dread worming around in her gut. _He just killed Georgie! His little brother! Is this really a bad dream? _She gripped tightly to Stanley._ I don't want it to be a bad dream!_

Georgie lay there for a beat as everyone held their breaths and then the horrors truly began. The young boy lay on the ground long enough for doubt to creep into the Losers' minds before he began to writhe and scream with limbs that flailed around as if independent from his small body.

Monstrous, otherworldly screams and roars escaped from the throat of young Georgie, ones that made Katherine cower behind Stanley as the scene played out. Georgie's little body shook with such force that Katherine feared he was going to tear himself in two; which in a way, he did as the body of young Georgie was soon replaced with It, Pennywise the dancing clown.

Once short stumpy limbs were replaced with long dirty white ruffle-encrusted ones, two red pompoms appeared on the tips of his feet and when Pennywise shot upright with a gasp, Georgie's head was easily replaced with the bowed head of IT.

"KILL IT BILL! KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!" Eddie screeched as It was pulled up onto its feet like a puppet on a string.

"Shit!" Richie swore when IT's head finally looked up at them.

"No..." Stanley whimpered, tightening his hold on Katherine's legs, taking a step backwards from he clown as she in turn clutched tighter to his tense shoulders.

"BILL! KILL IT! KILL IT! BILL!" Golden beady eyes rolled in from either side until they focused on the Losers in front of them.

"KILL IT!"

"KILL IT BILL!"

"SHOOT IT! BILL!"

"But...it's not loaded..."

"BILL!"

"KILL IT! KILL IT!"

"It's not loaded!" Mike reiterated as Bill raised the cattle gun once more and uselessly fired the empty gun straight at IT. Pennywise jerked upright with a roar as it mockingly created a second entry point on its forehead where the bullet would have entered had the gun been loaded.

IT rocked back on its heels for a moment, before lunging forward again with a roar. Everyone ran in different directions, some tripping over their feet as they went. Stanley ended up dropping Katherine in his sudden shock at the movement of the clown, leaving the two of them to scramble around in the gross sludge on the floor.

Katherine was hauled to her feet and pushed back behind the others, just in time to see It launch itself at Bill who had fallen in his attempt to escape, and only just managed to shove the silver cattle gun in IT's mouth before it could reach him.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Beverly growled, whacking It over the head with an iron pike, only for It to reach out and yank the weapon away.

"BEVERLY! NO!" Mike cried, moving forward next with a steel pipe in his hands. Mike got no more than a few steps away from the clown before he was thrown backwards into the tower behind them. Katherine had had to duck out of the way of the incoming body, but shoved aside her exhaustion to help Mike.

"NO! STOP!" Bill sprung up from behind It, this time shoving a steel dowel in between its teeth.

"HELP HIM!" Beverly screamed from Mike's other side as she helped him to his feet.

"Ah fuck!" Richie cursed when he joined Bill on the back of It and the two hung on for dear life; next Ben clung onto one arm and Stanley took the other, both boys seemed to be trying to rip their chosen limbs off of the murderous clown. Who in turn, was trying his darnedest to throw the boys off like a wild bucking bronco ride at a bar.

Unfortunately, their efforts were all in vain, as IT seemed to have enough of the playground bullshit and easily tossed the boys aside as if they were nothing more than plastic bags clinging to the branches of a tree. "BILLY!" Katherine cried, frozen in place and tears streaming down her face when she saw that It held him in his grasp. All around her, the Losers rose to their feet with makeshift weapons clasped tightly in their hands.

"BILL!"

"BILL! NO!"

"NO! Don't! Let him go!" Beverly pleaded as she watched It locked his hands around Bill's head, looking as if he wanted to snap it. And considering how easily he had tossed all four boys aside only moments before, it wouldn't be hard either.

"No" IT shook its head with a gleaming wicked grin, "I'll take him. I'll take all of you! And I'll feast on your flesh as I feed on your fear!..._Or_...you'll just leave us be—" IT stroked Billy like a villain peting a cat, "—I will take him, only him and then I will have my long rest and you will all live to grow and thrive and lead _happy _lives! Until old age drags you back to the weeds...!"

"...Leave!" Bill whimpered, pulling It's hand down just far enough to speak, "...I'm the one who dragged you all into this. I'm s-s-so s-s-s-sorry"

"S-s-s-sorry! Hahaha!" IT laughed mockingly.

"Go!" Bill tried again when no-one made a move to leave, all of the Losers defiantly staring back at him as It laughed harder.

"...Guys...we-we can't—!" Beverly protested.

"S-s-sorry" Bill stuttered again as Richie slowly rose to his feet.

"I told you, Bill, I _fucking _told you! I don't wanna die, it's your fault!" Katherine watched helplessly from the sidelines as Richie took control, taking the lead and making the decision for the Losers. "You punched me in the face—" _When did that happen? _"—You-you made me walk through _shitty _water. You brought me to a _fuckin' _crackhead house, and now?" Walking over to the tall tower next to them, Richie easily pulled out a baseball bat that sat snugly between an upturned bucket and a creepy doll. "—I'm gonna have to kill this fuckin' clown"

Richie had stated his intentions so casually, as if he had been discussing the weather or school grades rather than the idea of killing an inter-dimensional murderous shapeshifting clown. Katherine's heart soared when she realised what Richie was really doing. _He wasn't running away! He was monologuing! Like villains do on Saturday morning TV!_

"WELCOME TO THE LOSERS' CLUB, ASSHOLE!" Richie roared, swinging the bat as IT tossed Bill aside with a roar. Nailing IT in the head, the clown whipped around, stumbling over its own feet as it came face to face with Mike who clutched tightly to the steel dowel. Swinging the dowel like a bat, Mike only got so far before a multitude of ashen arms burst forth from the depths of IT's mouth and clung tightly to the dowel, and in turn, Mike.

"Ah—Guys!" Mike whimpered, as though he could smell the burning flesh on the victims' arms.

Grabbing the steel pipe that had been left forgotten on the ground, Stanley strode forth and sliced downwards with it, knocking Mike away from the clown and turning IT's attention to him. Stumbling backwards, Stanley was given another swing at the clown when It's face shifted into a skeletal and sallow-looking woman who charged straight for the boy.

After that, Mike swung again, only this time he was thrown to the ground and It's arms transformed into spider-like feet as it tried to pin the squirming boy to the ground. Katherine could only watch on in horror as It laughed merrily, enjoying the fear radiating from the boy as it chased him. Ben moved next, plucking up his courage and driving the iron pike straight through the clown's chest.

"BEN!" Beverly cried desperately, as blood sprayed upwards from the wound and the writhing clown, and began to suck Ben inside. It's head shifted again, this time swivelling on its axis and turning into a ragged and decrypt-looking mummy that kept trying to eat him.

"NGHAAH!" Ben cried, pulling backwards with all his might as the mummy's bandages wrapped themselves around his head and pulled him closer to the gnawing teeth of the walking corpse. Bill moved next, snatching a pile of iron chains from the ground and lashed them at the clown, knocking Ben free.

On some unspoken agreement, all the boys moved forward as one unit, each taking to turns to hit and hurt the clown in any way that they could. Garbled insults and enraged yells were thrown at the monster who coughed and hacked, quickly turning on Eddie who still remained on the ground, off to the side.

A torrent of putrid vomit exploded from the IT's mouth like a fire hose put on full blast. Katherine winced—not only at the horrid smell that sent her gagging as well—but at how Eddie, the germaphobe who had a pill for everything, was now suddenly covered in the foul vomit. Though for once, this didn't seem to slow him down, instead he rose to his feet and launched a kick straight for the clown. "WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU! AHH!"

IT was thrown backwards onto its hands and knees, where it stared up at Beverly with the face of a middle-aged man with a creepy look on his face. Katherine had no idea who he was, but Beverly certainly did as she slowly stalked forward, with the iron pike clasped tightly between white-knocked fingers.

"Hey Bevie! Are you still my little girl—?" IT purred.

"RAAAH!" Beverly reared back and stabbed the steel dowel straight down IT's throat, stopping anymore foul words escaping from those horrid lips. Almost instantly, IT began to choke on the metal, its face crackling back into the painted clown that it always wore. Spit dribbled from either corners of its mouth and with an almighty heave, it spat out the top half of the steel dowel onto the ground at its feet.

"Oh _shit!" _Richie panicked, as those two golden eyes locked onto the Losers with unbridled fury and a small amount of fear.

Fear clawed its way up Katherine's throat once more. _I don't want this to be a bad dream! _Katherine whined, _I like this dream! This is a good dream! I want it to be real! _Amidst her panic, she noticed the barrel of a pistol poking out from beneath a soggy swollen sweater at the base of the tower.

Carefully, tugging it free, Katherine recognised the engraving on the nozzle that read _'By God's Grace'. _It was familiar, the memory of Alexander Holsen bringing the weapon to school one day for show and tell.

He had told some extravagant story about how his grandfather had felled a giant elephant with the tiny pistol, and had then struck many different poses with it, until he had accidentally pulled the trigger and hit Daisy White's science project. Daisy had _not _been happy.

Flicking the barrel open like she remembered the blonde boy doing, Katherine saw that there was at least one bullet still left in the chamber. Closing it all up, she awkwardly held the weapon in her sludge-covered hands, trying her best to hold it still even as slippery as it was.

Glancing back up to the situation at hand, Katherine had noticed that It had risen once more, this time taking on the form of her own fear. Only instead of being purely just the Beast that had haunted her over the summer, it was more of a combination of both the Beast and Mother Superior.

The hooked nose and beady eyes of the Mother Superior stared down at them through the twisted and gnarled bark that covered every inch of skin, making her see faces and shapes that weren't really there. Pinched lips cracked up into an unearthly grin as it crept forward, "Tch-tch!" A branch-like finger waved back and forth scoldingly, "Naughty children must be _punished!"_

Raising shaky hands up in front of her, Katherine closed one eye as she tried to aim the pistol straight ahead, though it was tricky with all the sludge on her hands. Sucking in a breath, she held it and with her tired arms locked in place, she pulled the trigger.

_BANG!_

The bullet seemed to connect, though Katherine couldn't be sure. What she did know was that her monster suddenly melted back into Pennywise the dancing clown and it fell backwards with a gurgle. Body shaking furiously, IT scrambled backwards as the Losers converged on the creature; backing it up until the sewer pipe leading down to a lower cavern met its back.

"That's why you didn't kill Beverly" Bill realised, standing over the clown without a trace of fear showing, " 'Cause sh-sh-sh-she wasn't afraid. And we aren't either, not anymore. Now you're the one who's afraid. 'Cause you're gonna _starve!"_

Still gurgling and trembling, IT threw itself backwards, only just holding on to the edge of the sewer pipe so it could say its last goodbyes. "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts—" All of the Losers now stood side-by-side around the edge of the sewer pipe as they resolutely stared down at the creature which had been tormenting the two for millennia. "—He thrust his fist against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts—" Stanley handed Bill the steel pipe, who took it and held it up warningly, "—He thrusts his fists against the p-p-posts—"

Sliding down further until It was only holding on by the skin of its fingernails. The Losers peered down to see the clown peeling apart and falling away like orange peels. Katherine shuddered when those horrible golden beady eyes locked onto them, "FEAR!" cried IT before letting go and falling down into the dark, laughing all the way down.

No one spoke for a moment, as they let it all sink in and then, in true trashmouth fashion, Richie spoke first. "Well, I know what _I'm _doing for my summer experience essay" Despite herself, Katherine couldn't help the giggle that fell from her lips at the comment.

"Uh...Guys...?" Eddie murmured, his gaze drifting to the tower of toys and floating children in the middle of the room. "Guys! The kids are floating down!"

As the kids came closer and closer to them, Katherine was able to make out a couple of the bodies; recognising the bright red stubby shorts as Tommy Wicker or the fluffy blonde hair of Alexander Holsen. There was the clean habit of Sister Mary still dressed in her training habit and Johnny Ursa rolling over to reveal his toothy grin. Countless others floated down too, until they gently floated in the sludgy water that swamped the cavern.

Gripping tight to Bill's hand, Katherine was tugged forward and pulled from kid spotting when he moved sluggishly towards the base of the tower where a little yellow raincoat could be seen standing out from the darkness surrounding them. Pulling it free, Bill gently rubbed his free hand over the well-worn label on the inside of the collar:

_GEORGIE DENBROUGH_

When sniffling tears began to fall from Bill's eyes, Katherine let go of his hand and wrapped her tiny arms around his waist, burying her face in his shirt as the boy cried over the brother he had lost. All around them, the Losers quietly crept over and joined the hug. With Richie and Eddie on either side of Bill and Beverly drawing the group closer together. Ben wrapped his arms around Richie, Mike around Eddie and Stanley stood over them all and hugged them tight as they clung together in that nightmarish cavern beneath the city of Derry.


	14. Blood Oath

**_"Kia mau ki tō ūkaipō (Don't forget your roots, my friend),  
__Kia mau hoki ki tō whānau (Don't forget your family, yeah)  
__Kia mau ki tō ūkaipō (Don't forget your roots, my friend)  
__I tangata ai koe (The ones who made you),  
__I hari mai i a koe (The ones who brought you here)  
__Kia mau ki tō ūkaipō (Don't forget your roots, my friend)..."  
__-Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō (Don't Forget Your Roots__), Six60_**

**_September, Derry, Maine 1988_**

In the month following the battle against IT, the Losers had spent a lot of time together just hanging out and doing normal kid stuff. Stanley taught Katherine how to properly ride a bike, using the promise of ice cream to persuade her. There were days spent in Bill's garage watching movies and days in the arcade playing games.

There were days when the Losers would explore every inch of the Barrens and the dump that resided next to it. They skipped stones and swam in the Quarry. Katherine loved these days, these days filled with fun and laughter as wasted away the summer days. But not once did they return to Neibolt street.

With the end of summer finally drawing near, the Losers had converged on the Barrens for one last time. "...I can only remember parts—" Beverly explained as they sat in circle all bandaged and healing, "—But, I thought I was dead. That's what it felt like...I saw us, all of us, together back in the sewers, but we were older like-like our parents' ages"

"W-w-what-what were we all doing there?" Bill asked.

"I just remember how we felt...how scared we were. I don't think I can ever forget that" Katherine slipped her small bandaged hand into Beverly's giving it a small squeeze.

With his face falling into a determined expression, Bill leant forth and plucked a shard of broken grass from the ground. "Swear it!" Bill stood before the Losers with the shard of glass in one hand, "S-Swear if IT isn't dead, if it ever comes back...we'll come back too"

There was a beat of silence as everyone looked at each other, _Would we really have to fight this thing again? IT's gone, isn't it? We killed IT! _Katherine thought before joining the others in rising to her feet. Standing in the circle between Beverly and Bill, Katherine watched and waited as Bill used the glass to cut first his own palm and then everyone else's. With bleeding palms, the Losers stood together holding each other's hands and sealing the oath as they silently promised to return should the clown ever do so as well.

They barely stood there for a moment before Stanley pulled back, "I gotta go" He excused, "I hate you" Though it wasn't malicious and he ended it with a grin and a chuckle. Katherine quickly jumped forth and wrapped her arms around his waist, giving him a quick hug before he left. She felt his pat her head before she pulled away. "I'll...see you later"

"Bye Stan" Bill whispered. Over time the others soon left too, though Katherine made sure to grab a quick hug from each of them before they left.

"Bye guys" Eddie went next, taking a quick hug from Richie and receiving one from Katherine.

"See ya later, Losers" Mike grinned, trudging off through the tall grass of the Barrens.

"See ya 'round, Bill" Richie went next, "See ya guys later"

"Bye guys" Ben whispered quietly before he left.

Katherine was down by the river when Beverly and Bill left, both of them coming over to say farewell before going. It was nice having friends for a while, and it was something she didn't want to forget. But Bill and Beverly were moving away and Mike was still being homeschooled. _Still, I like this dream most of all..._


	15. Ghosts of the Past

**_"It's been a long day without you, my friend  
_****_And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again  
_****_We've come a long way from where we began  
_****_Oh I'll tell you all about it when I see you again  
_****_When I see you again…"_****_-_****_See You Again, _****_Wiz Khalifa_**

**_Lebanon, Kansas, Present Day_**

"…Beverley and Bill left pretty much straight after the incident with the clown. Richie left halfway through high school and Eddie, Ben and Stan moved outta Derry after graduation. Only Mike and myself stayed, at least, I did until I graduated. As far as I know, Mike still lives in Derry" Katherine ended her story, fiddling with her worn pendant as she did so.

"Holy shit…I mean…I just…holy shit" Mary stammered.

"Yeah—" Katherine huffed a laugh, "—I know, right? Holy shit. That sums it up pretty well"

"So, what was the call for then?" Mary pursued, "What's this gotta do with the…shapeshifter?"

"Like I said, twenty-seven years ago we made a blood oath to return should IT ever pop back up and now it has" Katherine replied.

"Well, is there any way you don't have to go? I mean, was the blood oath legit?"

"I mean, we were kids in a field with a piece of glass, so, no, I don't think so. But still…I mean, this is our job! And yet…"

"And yet…you're still unsure about this?"

"I mean, it's a miracle what we did last time, worked as well as it did. There's no telling what'll happen this time or if it'll even work!"

"But you were just kids then, weren't you? And you've got all this experience behind you now. Whose stop say you won't beat it again?" Mary fired back.

"…Yeah, I know—" Katherine ran a hand through her messy locks as she sighed, "—and I think deep down, I always knew I would be returning to Derry. I guess, I just hoped it wouldn't be so soon"

"Sounds like you've made up your mind then"

"Yeah, I guess so"

* * *

Later that night, after Mary had slipped away under the watchful eye of Castiel, Katherine found herself standing in the steamy bathroom. Clutching tight to the porcelain sink beneath her fingers, she stared into the condensated mirror, where her reflection stared back at her. Her auburn hair hung in stringy ringlets around her face, framing the purple bags under her eyes and made the stormy blue organs appear more sunken into her skull than they actually were.

Heaving a sigh, Katherine's eyes trailed over torn earlobe and down the scarred nose, passed the tattooed sternum and forearms. Passed the large Derry High Alumni t-shirt that hung off of her small frame like a dress; over the shiny silver tags that hung in between her breasts and down her (covered) slightly pudgy stomach that was littered in scars, new and old. "Can we actually do this? Can we actually beat IT?" Katherine asked herself with a sigh.

"Of course you can and you will" Replied a young voice from behind her.

"Jesus!" Katherine cursed, spinning around to find Georgie Denbrough grinning at her from where he sat on the close lid of the toilet.

"Kate? Are you okay in there?" Sam knocked on the door, the shadow of his large form blocking out all of the light from the hallway.

"Uh…y-yeah, I'm okay" Katherine replied, wincing at her obvious stammer.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It was just a spider"

"Seriously?"

"Shut up, Sam"

Katherine didn't realise she was holding her breath until Sam disappeared from the bathroom door and she relaxed back against the edge of the bathtub. She waited a moment or two more to make sure that he was really gone, before she turned to the young Reaper sitting on her toilet. "What are you doing here, Georgie?"

"You need to return to Derry, Katherine" Georgie replied, the grin falling from the young Reaper's lips.

As per usual, Georgie wore the clothes he had died in—the yellow raincoat and matching gumboots—although through some _divine _miracle, any injuries he had sustained during his life were gone. The arm that had been torn off was back, the scar from when he cut his finger on the box cutters in first grade was gone, even the little scrapes and bruises his former self had were all gone. Of course, he was also dead, so there was that. Katherine had asked him about his appearance once, and the Reaper had simply replied that he was supposed to appear more comforting with everything intact; which was true—no one liked to see others, especially children, missing limbs.

"This is gonna be shit show, innit?" Katherine sighed, tilting her head back to stare at the dirty ceiling, "That's why you're here, innit? 'Cause there's gonna be deaths galore again, innit there?"

"You know what you need to do Katherine" Georgie replied, neither answering nor denying her claims.

"Yeah, I know" She sighed.

"Are you going to tell the Winchesters?"

"After what happened with Mary? No way. I'll—I'll just leave a note or something. Tell 'em it's a family emergency or something"

"But don't they know you're an orphan?"

"Well, then I'll say I went to a friend's funeral!" Katherine snarked, "Who knows, it might even be mine…"

"We'll see"

"Yeah, I s'pose we will"


	16. Welcome Home

**_"Tell me Doctor, where are we going this time?  
_****_Is this the '50s or 1999?…So take me away,  
_****_I don't mind, but you better promise me,  
_****_I'll be back in time!…"—_****_Back in Time,_****_ Huey Lewis & The News_**

_I don't know where I'm goin'  
__But I sure know where I've been  
__Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday  
__And I've made up my mind  
__I ain't wasting no more time  
__Here I go again  
__Here I go again_

The slight hiss of the cassette tape that crackled behind Whitesnake's _Here I Go Again, _rattled throughout the well-worn, paint-peeling Jeep Wrangler. The lyrics of the classic '80s ballad filled the car with passionate words, flowing over Katherine as she tapped along to the song, soundlessly singing along and just quietly rocking out to the tune.

_Though I keep searchin' for an answer  
__I never seem to find what I'm lookin' for  
__Oh Lord, I pray you give me strength to carry on_

Slowly cruising down the road, Katherine left her gaze to wander over the changing landscape. Not much had changed since the last time she had been home, and yet at the same time, everything had changed. It was almost like coming home to Old Derry, and yet being a tourist in the New Derry. It was all very confusing.

_'Cause I know what it means  
__To walk along the lonely street of dreams  
__And here I go again on my own  
__Goin' down the only road I've ever known  
__Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone  
__And I've made up my mind_

It was odd being back in Derry after so long. The last time she had been home was at the turn of the century, when girls walked around drenched in Impulse deodorant and boys drowned themselves in Old Spice. Back when she'd watch reruns of _Ab Fab _on the TVs that stood in the front window of _Tommy's TV's _or browse through the multitude of stores that were housed in the mini-mall that popped up one year in Richard's Alley.

_I ain't wasting no more time  
__Just another heart in need of rescue  
__Waiting on love's sweet charity  
__And I'm gonna hold on for the rest of my days_

_Wow, it really has changed. _Katherine mused as she cruised down the main road, her gaze roving over everything that had popped up along the landscape. Back in the day, Derry had been a big town, but not much more. There had been _maybe _thirty thousand people inside the _entire _Derry boundary and then maybe another seven thousand in the surround burgs. But that was it.

Now though? Now it had become a —very—small city (when in comparison to London or New York). The little Maine city seemed to be doing just fine though, considering that Portland—the state's largest city—could only boast barely three thousand people.

_'Cause I know what it means  
__To walk along the lonely street of dreams  
__And here I go again on my own  
__Goin' down the only road I've ever known  
__Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone  
__And I've made up my mind_

Passing over the canal and slowly cruising down Main street, Katherine turned onto Center street. A pang of dismay sounded in Katherine's heart as she saw how much had really changed in her little town. When she had been growing up, Derry had felt rather cold and hard like it didn't give a shit whether you lived or died.

So this dismay to see her hometown turned into…this utopia? It almost felt like she was an old woman looking through pictures of her glory days. Was this dismay because of all the changes that she hadn't been there for? All the things they'd changed in her absence? Or was it because of the little bits of character that made Derry, home, were now gone?

_I ain't wasting no more time  
__But here I go again  
__Here I go again  
__Here I go again  
__Here I go again  
__Here I go!_

The _Bijou Theatre_ was gone, replaced with a parking lot branded with a shiny new sign (_BY PERMIT ONLY! VIOLATORS SUBJECT TO TOW!). The Shoeboat_ and _Bailey's Lunch_, which had been sandwiched in next to it, were also gone. They had been replaced with a branch of _Northern National Bank_; displaying a digital readout that showed the time and temperature (in both Celsius and Fahrenheit).

Moving further along, the _Center Street Drug_, Mr Keene's lair and the place where Katherine had first laid eyes upon the Losers, was still there although it had been given a new lick of paint. All around her, Katherine noticed the new shiny new stores sandwiched between the old heritage buildings she had grown up with. Like the music store, an all-natural foods store and a toy's & games store.

_'Cause I know what it means  
__To walk along the lonely street of dreams  
__And here I go again on my own  
__Goin' down the only road I've ever known  
__Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone  
__And I've made up my mind_

Though that's to say, it hadn't all changed. The depressing parade of banks and carparks melted into the dust as the Jeep rattled on; climbing further up Center street; Katherine's lips pulled upwards when she noticed the _Aladdin Theatre_ was still there. The theatre held many memories for the hunter: fingers dipped in buttery popcorn, lips meeting in the dark, peeling shoes from the sticky floor, running from cinema to cinema…

Drifting further along the road, Katherine spotted the _Derry Home Hospital._ When she had been a kid, it was no more than a white-washed wood frame building that had held two wings and three floors. By the time she had left, they were just adding another section onto it. "That's a few more than last time" Katherine murmured as her eyes picked out a whole complex of new buildings that surrounded the original, complete with a parking lot off to the left. It was almost the same size as a college campus by this point.

_I ain't wasting no more time  
__And here I go again on my own  
__Goin' down the only road I've ever known  
__Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone  
__'Cause I know what it means  
__To walk along the lonely street of dreams  
__And here I go again!_

Rolling past Derry Mall, Katherine noticed with a pang of sadness—as she had on many an occasion—that the great long field of nodding sunflowers and long lanky grasses which marked the northeastern end of the Barrens had been mowed down in order to accommodate the large building. Memories of days spent frolicking in the long swishing grass flitted through her mind as she drove. Days where the Losers would explore the field, picking apart the old 'relics' they found leftover from the Kitchener Ironworks explosion in 1906.

She remembered an old cellar out there too, the one that led down to the site of the explosion and how Richie would often taunt them about going down there. Eddie would fire back something about diseases and Katherine would lean over the edge, giving either Beverly or Bill a heart attack. Sometimes Ben would bring up something historical about the explosion and Mike would try his best to avoid the topic of fire and burning bodies. All of them refused to talk about IT, and did their uttermost best to skirt the topic whenever it arose.

The cassette tape rolled over into the next song as she pulled into the carpark of the Jade Palace. The Chinese restaurant—complete with red plastic pagodas—had sprung up during her tenth grade, and had quickly become a staple hangout for the local teens. Katherine could remember cringey first dates spent cracking open cheesy fortune cookies and slurping up noodles as daintily as possible, before they hooked up in the parking lot or went to the movies. It wasn't exactly a classy joint, but it was the best Derry had.

Dusk had fallen by the time Katherine finally decided to enter the restaurant. First, she had watched each of the elder Losers arrive with a feeling of apprehension curled up in her gut. Bill had arrived first; after tipping his cabbie, the man disappeared inside with tensed shoulders and stiff upperback. Not much seemed to have changed about him, their leader still wore dirt brown locks and moved as they he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Next came Eddie, he too appeared the same, if older. He had taken a large suck on the inhaler buried deep in his pocket, before he stepped across the threshold and waved down a waitress where he no doubt began to list his various ailments. Just as he had been as a child, Eddie was a thin man, sallow-skinned and rather pedantic about his various 'gazebo' ailments.

Then there was Beverly. She had grown much taller, though she had kept her golden hair short. Dressed simply, the woman stood before the doors of the restaurant filled with fear and apprehension as she clutched tight the straps of her large handbag. No sooner had she arrived, did Ben and Richie had turned up as well.

Katherine couldn't catch the words shared between the three, but she was impressed to see how they had changed. Where Ben had been a rather pudgy child, he was now tall and slim, easily towering over Beverly. Richie appeared the same. He wore the same coke-bottle glasses that he had as a kid, he walked the same and let's be honest, he probably sounded the same as well. If the sounds of laughter was anything to go by. She had yet to see Stanley or Mike arrive. But knowing Mike, he was likely already inside. She didn't know where Stanley was.

"All right" Katherine breathed, her eyes focused on the shiny red store through her windscreen, "You can do this, you can do this. It's just dinner, you can do dinner" Heaving another sigh, Katherine quickly checked herself over in the rearview mirror. Her loose auburn curls had been chopped short into a pixie cut that sat messily around her face, as if she had just arisen from bed. A quick tug at her many layers, helped the collar of her flannel shirt to lay flat overtop of the large grey knitted sweater she wore. "Yeah, that'll do" Tucking her leather-bound wallet and keys into the back pocket of her jeans, Katherine pulled herself from the Jeep and after squaring her shoulders headed inside.

Inside, she was met with a server who led her to the booth that Mike had hired for the seven of them. Looking around, not much had changed. Red still bled through everything—from the plates to the ornaments—a large golden gong sat in one corner and a multitude of circular tables were scattered throughout the restaurant.

"…Any dietary requirements?" The serve politely asked Katherine as she gazed around.

"Uh, no-no. I'm all good, thanks" Katherine replied absentmindedly, her gaze immediately going to the elder Losers already gathered around their table, "_Fuck! _You guys are old!"

"Who're you?" Richie nodded towards Katherine as the Losers turned to face her. Mike was the only one whose face lit up when she arrived.

"C'me on Trashmouth, it hasn't been _that _long" Katherine grinned.

"Kat!" Mike strode forth to hug the short woman, easily enveloping her in his arms, "It's good to see you!"

"You too, Mike!" Katherine returned the hug, her arms not quite reaching all the way around.

"…Midget?" Richie piped up as his eyes roved up and down her form, "You're still so tiny!"

"I'm 35, what's your excuse?" Katherine grinned.

"It's good to see you, Kat" Beverly came next, hugging the younger woman close until she was practically squeezing her.

"You too, Bev" Katherine smiled into the elder girl's shoulder.

**_DONG! _**

The sound of the gong echoed throughout the small restaurant, pulling everyone from their conversations. Richie turned back from the ringing gong, "This meeting of the Losers' Club has officially begun!" He decreed as the group gathered to make their tentative greetings to one another.

"Ha! Who are these guys?" Eddie joked, though it fell a little flat. Next to him, Bill and Mike stood watching the quartet as they entered and exchanged pleasantries.

* * *

It didn't take long for things to get underway, the evening easily shifting into joy-filled laughter and old taunts shared between friends. Plates of food spun on the Lazy Susan in the middle of the table and booze was knocked back like water as the Losers laughed and ate, catching up on all the years they had missed.

"…So wait, Eddie you got _married?" _Richie repeated, after knocking back a shot and dropping the empty glass to the table.

"Yeah. Why is that so fucking funny, dickwad?" Eddie fired back defensively.

"What? To, like, a woman?"

"Fuck you, bro"

"Fuck you!"

"Alright, what about you, Trashmouth?" Bill interjected, "You married?"

"There's _no way _Richie's married!" Beverly laughed around her chopsticks.

"No I got married" Richie replied.

"Rich, I don't believe it"

"When?" Eddie added and Ben was trying his hardest not to grin as Richie replied.

"You not hear this?" Richie turned to Eddie completely serious, "You didn't know I got married? Yeah, no, me and your mom are very, very happy together—" Richie joked. Katherine—who had been drinking her beer at the time—practically spat it back into the glass and out of her nose at the predictable joke.

"Fuck you" Eddie said.

"—She's very sweet—" Richie continued, "—Sometimes, sh-she'll put her arm around me and she'll whisper to me, she'll go _'beso gobaka meesa wookie"_

"Yes, we _all _get it! My mom is a great, big, fat person—" Katherine winced at this but the grin on her face didn't fade, "—Hilarious. Hysterical" All around her laughter filled the air, as the Losers fell back into the familiar roles they had once inhabited as kids.

"Wait, let's talk about the elephant _not _in the room" Richie piped up, this time turning his attention to Ben across the table, "Ben, what the fuck, man?"

"Yeah, okay, okay, obviously, I lost a few pounds" Ben admitted.

"Yeah, no shit"

"A few?"

"Yeah, obviously"

"You're like a—you're hot!" Richie reiterated, "You're like every single Brazilian soccer player wrapped up into one person. Gorgeous!"

"Leave him alone, you're embarrassing him!" Beverly scolded lightly.

"Okay, okay, alright, please, c'me on. Is Stanley coming tonight or what?" Ben gestured to the empty chair on Katherine's right.

"Stanley…" Eddie sat back in his chair, as he tried to remember the last member of their group. Katherine's eyes wandered around the table, shifting from person to person as she watched their confused and blank faces turn to the chair next to her. Only Mike wore a fond smile as he remembered the sun-kissed Jewish boy.

"Stan…Stan Uris…" Richie trailed as he tried to remember his friend.

"Stan Urine!" Both he and Bill chorused, as the boy suddenly popped into their minds.

"Stanley Urine! No, no, he's a fucking pussy. He's not gonna show" Richie chuckled, rubbing his hands in front of him.

"Why would Stanley save you anyway?" Eddie agreed, "Was _I_ not the one who basically performed surgery on you…after Bowers cut you up! Holy shit! That's right!"

"Please tell me, you ended up becoming a doctor Ed?" Katherine asked.

"No, I uh, ended up becoming a risk analysis" Eddie replied, looking away.

"That sounds _really _interesting—" Richie couldn't help but taunt, "—What does that entail?"

"Yeah, so I work for like a big insurance firm—"

"Zzzzz!" Richie leant back in his chair and fake snored, cutting through Eddie's explanation much to the amusement of the others.

"Fuck you, dude. Fuck you"

"Was this job invented before fun?"

"Oh that's so not funny!"

"It is funny!"

"What the fuck are you laughing at?!" This time Eddie turned on Bill who had been trying to smother his laughter into his glass.

"What about you, Kat?" Mike asked the hunter, effectively cutting through the squabble between the two boys.

"Hm?" Katherine hummed around the rim on her glass as she drank the last dregs of her beer.

"What did you end up doing after Derry?"

"Uh, well, I went to college" Katherine lied. She had created the story beforehand and learnt all the ins and outs of it, before she was confident enough to tell it. As Pops (another hunter) had always said: _Always be specific when you lie._

"Really? Where'd ya go?" Bill piped up.

"Uh, Wichita State"

"Ba-na-now-now-now-now-now! Ba-na-now-now-now-now-now!" Richie imitated the sound of banjo, "Yer way out in the boondocks there, lassie!"

"Yeah, no kidding! What d'ya study way out there? How to get to Oz?" Eddie laughed.

"Oh ha ha!" Katherine snarked, "Nah, I, uh, studied cryptozoology" _Which is not entirely wrong._

"What's that?"

"It's basically the study of myths and legends, y'know, stuff like Bigfoot and what not"

"So what? You're like some kind of crazy kid with a tinfoil hat, sitting in a basement as you comb through the conspiracy sites?" Richie teased

"Nah" Katherine laughed, "I'm an exterminator"

"What like the guys who pull dead squirrels outta your heating vent?"

"Yeah, that's me" Katherine grinned, "Squirrel collector extraordinaire!"

"Eurgh! Do you know how many disease that rodents even carry?" Eddie paled at the thought.

"Yeah, do you?" Katherine laughed.

"I propose a toast—" Beverly interjected with a smile before the two could go off on a tangent, raising her half-empty bottle in the air, "—To the Losers"

* * *

It didn't take long for the rest of the meal and evening to melt away, and soon enough the glasses & plates were cleared and a bowl of fortune cookies was brought over to the table. By this point, it was dark outside and Katherine had completely forgotten about the whole reason as to why the Losers had reunited in their home town.

Cracking open her fortune cookie, Katherine left the rolled up fortune on the table as she nibbled on her cookie and listened to Eddie ramble endlessly on about something he had read somewhere on the internet. That was until Ben piped up, having been listening in on Beverly and Bill's conversation.

"…It's weird right?" Ben spoke up, "Now that we're all here, everything just comes back faster and faster. I mean all of it"

"Did-did you know that when Mike called me, I threw up?" Richie added, "Innit that weird? Like I got nervous. Like I got sick and I threw up. I mean, I feel fine now, I feel relieved to be here with you guys…" Everyone turned to focus their attentions of Richie, all of the solemn and withdrawn as they each remembered their own reactions to the call, "…Why's everybody looking at me like this?"

"When Mike called me, I crashed my car" Eddie admitted.

"Seriously?" Bill asked.

"Yeah"

"Shit, man I hear ya" Ben said, "I mean my heart, was literally like pounding right out of my chest"

"I was just numb, y'know?" Katherine spoke quietly as all eyes turned to her, "Like I couldn't believe it was real"

"I thought it was only me" Beverly murmured next.

"It was like pure f-f-f-f—" Bill stuttered.

"Fear" Mike ended, "It's fear, what you felt"

"Why'd we all feel like that?" Bill asked.

"…"

"You remember something we don't, don't'cha Mike?"

"Something happens when you leave this town…the farther away, the hazier it gets. But me, I never left. So yeah, I remember, I remember all of it"

"…Pennywise?" Beverly suddenly whispered, her face falling and growing ashen as the memory popped into her mind. All around her, the rest of the Losers bore similar expressions as they too, remembered the nightmare that lurked beneath Derry.

"Oh, the fucking the clown!" Eddie murmured.

"Oh shit" Ben whispered, shifting in his seat.

"Mikey, you said you wanted our help with something" Katherine leant forward, placing both of her elbows onto the table as she did so, "What was that?"

"There's an echo here in Derry—" Mike explained, "—IT bounces back, every twenty-seven years—"

"What—what d'ya mean? What are you talking about?" Eddie interjected.

"Hold on, hold on. Just listen" Mike replied, "We thought we stopped IT back then, we thought IT was done—"

"Mike—" Richie tried as Mike began to furiously shift through the pages of the book in front of him. Leaning across the table, Katherine pulled the notebook over to her and began to flick through the highly detailed pages. From the drawings of IT to the accounts of missing children, and the historical clippings that Ben had shown them way back when.

"—A week ago a man was slaughtered: Adrian Mellon. A girl: Lisa Albran, went missing the other night—"

"Mike!"

"—There _will _be others and there will be more!"

"Alright! That's enough!"

"All right, just calm down man. Just calm down" Ben tried to placate Mike as he got more and more worked up.

"Why don't we get another drink?" Bill suggested.

"Just let him explain, let him explain" Ben replied as things quieted down.

"That echo?" Mike spoke calmly like nothing had happened before, "We might've changed it, just like it changed us. We didn't stop IT because IT just bounced back" He met every single pair of eyes around the table as he spoke and Katherine felt like he was staring into her soul when he did, "We made an oath. That's why I brought you back, that's why you're here. To finish IT, for good"

"…Well, that shit got dark fast. Thanks, Mike" Richie muttered. _Always count on Richie to brighten the mood. _Katherine's lips pulled upwards slightly.

**_CR~ACK! _**

"My fortune cookie just says _'Could' _Eddie quietly changed the topic.

"They don't know how to do fortune cookies here, mine just says _'Guess' " _Richie tacked on.

"They used to be better" Katherine supplied, holding up her own, "Mine just says _'I' "_

"Give your fortunes here" Bill instructed as he cleared a space on the table for all of them to go. Katherine easily handed hers over_. _Mike had _'It',_ Bill's was _'Not' _and Ben had_ 'Cut'_

"_I Guess It Could Not Cut?" _Richie tried, switching the papers around.

"_It Could Not Guess I?" _Eddie tried.

"Yeah, but then what about _Cut?" _Ben retorted.

"When it says _'It' _is it talking about IT? Is that what it means?" Eddie questioned a little hysterically.

Each of the boys were talking over each other, their voices growing louder and louder as they demanded their voices to be heard. The sentences that the fortunes created made very little sense and that was when Katherine realised that Beverly had yet to put hers in.

"Beverly?" Katherine asked, her soft voice cutting through the boys' like a hot knife through butter. Ashen-faced and full of apprehension, Beverly placed her fortune on the table, where it revealed the word _'Stanley'. _ Wordlessly, Bill shifted the words around one last time until the form the final sentence:

_I Guess Stanley Could Not Make It_

"Oh shit" Katherine breathed, falling back into her chair as she ran a hand down her face.

"Why does it say Stanley?" Eddie pursued, looking around the room for any kind of answer but he got none. "Why won't anyone fucking answer me?!"

Mike went to answer when the table gave an almighty heave, rattling the glassware and bowl of cookies still sitting there. "Whoa!" Katherine scooted her chair back from the table as the leftover cookies in the bowl began to shake and crack as if they were hatching eggs.

"What the fuck is that?!" Richie cried as one of the fortune cookies revealed a maggot-like creature with the face of a wailing baby.

"Shit!" Katherine jumped out of her seat, knocking the chair to the floor behind her as the tiny little creature rapidly moved across the table like some kind of little alien. Next came an eyeball that moved using its nerves, then the spindly wing of a bat burst from one shell sending the Losers scurrying backwards.

_Why did I leave my gun in the car?! _Katherine panicked, as she darted forward to grab a butterknife from the table, before leaping backwards as the bowl of cookies bled molten tar all over the table. The monstrous little nightmares popped up in the aquarium and gong behind them as well. There were floating heads that bobbed like apples in the water and tar-covered greasy fingers that peered around the edges of the golden gong although there were no traces of the body to be found. Panic quickly filled the room and it didn't take long for things to truly escalate.

Katherine quickly pinned the one-winged bat to the wall with the butter knife, where the knife became buried up to the hilt mere inches from Eddie's face.

"Thanks Kat" Eddie squeaked, darting away from the creature that still squirmed in its hold, just as Mike hefted one of the chairs over his shoulder and beat it down on the table, all the while repeating that it "…wasn't real! It's not real!"

Unsurprisingly, all their commotion brought one of the lovely servers over to their booth. No sooner had she arrived, did the nightmarish creatures disappear as if they had never been there to begin with. They all sheepishly turned to the woman who stood at the threshold as if she was about to scold them like a mother would her naughty children. Richie—always quick on his feet—made up an excuse that seemed to work, if only just barely. "Could we get the cheque?"

Not two minutes later, the Losers were striding out of the Jade Palace as if they couldn't wait to get out of there. Katherine, who had disappeared off to the bathroom for a moment or two, returned just in time to see a kid's parents glaring at Richie as they walked away. _Not gonna touch that. _Katherine thought, as she side-stepped the small family and joined the others out on the curb while Beverly made a call. Thankful that Beverly put the call on speakerphone, Katherine and the other Losers listened in as Beverly talked to Mrs Uris.

"Hello, Mrs Uris? My name's Beverly Marsh. I apologise for calling, but I'm an old friend of your husband's" Beverly introduced. Off to the side, Richie and Eddie ganged up on Mike.

"You lied to us! That's not okay, man!" Eddie declared, getting up in Mike's face before he walked away.

"Yeah, first words outta your mouth shoulda been _'Hey man, you wanna come to Derry and get murdered?' _Cause then I woulda said no" Richie added.

"Guys, shh!" Katherine pressed a finger to her lips, quietly scolding the older two as she turned to Beverly.

_"Oh…he passed" _Mrs Uris' frail voice crackled through the phone. Katherine felt her stomach drop at those words. _Not Stanley. _Katherine mourned as tears pricked in her eyes. Out of all of the Losers, Stan had been one of the ones she was most close to.

"When did it happen?" Beverly asked.

_"Yesterday. It was horrible the way he died…His wrists were slit in the bathtub…!…I'm sorry, I have to go!" _Mrs Uris whimpered.

"W-we're all very sorry"

_"Th-thank you"_

Grief gripped Katherine in a tight hold as her thoughts revolved around that one call. _Stanley…died? But—but…it's Stanley! He shouldn't be dead! He wouldn't! We were all supposed to be here! _Katherine thought turning from the others as they dissolved into two groups—those who would go with Mike to see this through and those who would go back to the town house and then get the hell out of Derry.

Somehow, Katherine's feet brought her back to her beloved Jeep where she then put the vehicle into drive; her mind all hazy and tears streaming down her face. It wasn't until she brought the car to a stop in front of the abandoned Bowers' home that she allowed herself to give into her grief. Great big hacking sobs ripped from her throat and ugly globs of snot ran from her nose as Katherine gripped tight to the steering wheel and let her emotions out.

_Please…! Not Stanley! Not my brother!_


	17. Dead & Gone, Or Not?

**_"…Worse than perfect, better than okay.  
_****_Someone asked 'What's wrong with kids these days?'  
_****_…Wonder why am I like this?  
_****_We love an extensional crisis…"_****_—What's Wrong with Kids these Days_****_, Kira Kosarin_**

When the tears finally subsided and the snot was wiped away, Katherine just sat and stared at the remains of the Bowers house. It hadn't changed much since the last time she had been here. Much like the Neibolt house that many of Derry's homeless and vandals inhabited, the Bowers home soon became a well-known place for the undesirables to hang out.

Following the defeat of IT in the sewers, it had been revealed that Henry Bowers—at the instruction of IT—had brutally murdered both his father and his sister. Not much information had been revealed to the public, only stating who was responsible (after Henry had returned to the scene of the crime) and the very basic details of what happened to the victims. Katherine would later search the police records for what had happened, only to find out the truly horrible things that the Bowers boy had done to his family. It still turned her stomach, all these years later.

The whitewashed two-storey farmhouse still stood amongst the overgrown garden; although the boards of the house seemed to have weathered so much by this point that a single breath could knock the structure over. The door had been busted in and was barely hanging onto the frame by its hinges and the brick chimney had crumbled long ago; the result of drunk teenagers with steel pipes and sledgehammers.

With a heavy sigh, Katherine turned on her lights and removed herself from the Jeep, traipsing through the long swishy grass over to where a large bramble of blackberries sat clustered off to the side of the house. With Henry admitted into an asylum, there was no other family to confirm or remove the bodies from the morgue and so they had rotted away in the little fridges beneath Derry Home Hospital for several years. Bill was right. Now that she was back home, she could remember it almost like it was yesterday.

* * *

**_Bowers Farmhouse, 1996_**

When she had woken up that morning, this was not what she had planned: at the ripe old age of fifteen, Katherine Agnes Ursa had stolen two bodies from the morgue. It had been eight years since the murder of Evelyn Bowers and Officer Butch Bowers, and subsequently, the defeat of IT. Although the people of Derry didn't really take notice of these events, nor did they seem to care.

It had been surprisingly easy to enter the morgue and subsequently, steal the bodies. _I s'pose no one expects a fifteen year old to break into the morgue to steal two unwanted bodies in the dead of night. _Katherine mused as she rifled through the glovebox for the old head torch and box of matches she had stuffed in there. Hopping out of the red pick-up truck she had borrowed from her boyfriend, Katherine squelched through the mud to the bed of the truck where the two wrapped bodies, a can of gasoline, a small bag of rock salt and a shovel lay waiting.

The weak beam of light barely pierced the darkness of night, but provided just enough light for her to drag the bodies over to the spot next to the house which she had picked out earlier. Thankfully, the house was bare of any squatters on this still night, allowing Katherine to move about without fear of being caught. After not-so-gracefully dropping the bodies to the ground next to her feet, Katherine set about digging the large hole for the two decomposing bodies to go in.

At first, Katherine hadn't wanted anything to do with the Bowers—dead or alive—which was understandable considering what her classmate had done to her. Some part of her, she was ashamed to say, had been relieved when Evelyn had died—no more gum on her chair or dirt in her bag—and she thought that she'd finally, _finally _be done with the torturous ways of her and her cronies. And she had been for a little while, at least until Evelyn had popped back up again.

The hauntings had started out sparse at first. The seven year-old would pop up in the middle of class and scream insults at one of her ignorant classmates or the exhausted teacher. Other times she would appear in some of her favourite haunts from when she was alive.

Mostly Katherine would ignore her as best she could when Evelyn just floated around the space or when she'd scream at a random person. But soon enough these sparse visits became a constancy that Katherine would've rather lived without. It didn't take long for the first grader to realise who could see her & who couldn't and she had discovered who could…well, Katherine had wanted to scream bloody murder, but that's not something you do in a library.

There were days when Evelyn would just stand next to her and scream ghastly noises into her ears, where her features would morph into monstrous nightmares that haunted Katherine for days afterwards. Even in death, Evelyn bullied Katherine to her wits end. Eventually, she had had enough.

Now Katherine would never call herself any kind of…supernatural expert. But she knew she had a problem and she needed to get rid of it. And so like most children, she had turned to library for help, not that that had really helped. Oh sure, there had been a large supernatural/science-fiction section in the library, but it had been labelled as 'fiction'.

And of those books she had trudged through, Katherine found that most of them had been silly romance novels between star-crossed lovers of both the supernatural and natural worlds. One new series in particular had portrayed a pair of brothers who hunted the things that go bump in the night. They had been portrayed as hunky men who got both the monster of the week and the lady on the side; like they were God-graced men with a cool car.

Despite the cheesiness of the series, Katherine had found herself rather liking a couple of the characters—both good and bad—easily picturing a couple of the Losers in their places. It was also in these books where she found half-decent information on how to rid herself of her current problem (after cross-referencing it on one of the library computers of course).

Cooking up a half-baked plan, Katherine had borrowed her boyfriend's car saying she needed to move something for the orphanage. Instead she had slunk into Derry Home Hospital, and down into the morgue where she nabbed both of the decaying Bowers' bodies before skedaddling into the cover of night. And now here she was chest-deep in grave dirt.

Having deemed the hole to be deep enough, Katherine had to jump and scrabble at the upturned roots of a nearby blueberry bush to pull herself out of the hole. _Didn't…think that…through! _Katherine puffed, afraid of what would happen should she speak aloud. It didn't matter that she was alone, she would take no chances.

Brushing off a couple clumps of dirt, Katherine grabbed Butch Bowers by his ankles, first. _Alright…here we go! _With an almighty heave, she dragged the body as close to the edge of the grave as she could, before stepping over the body and unceremoniously pushing it into the deep hole. A quick douse of gasoline showered the large body, before she moved onto Evelyn's small form.

It was much easier to pick up the small body, though walking with it was less than pretty. Katherine all but shuffled over to the grave where she then tipped the body out of her arms and watched it fall onto the body already there. The rest of the gasoline was poured over the bodies, drenching them until they stank to high heaven; after that, both bodies were encrusted with the bag of rock salt like fish before a fry-up.

It took her a few tries to get the match to light, and stay lit before she dropped it in. Emotionlessly watching the flames dance and flicker over the wrapped corpses, Katherine buried her nose into the top of her turtleneck sweater and let the night wash over her. The smell of burning rotten flesh permeated the air and Katherine was once again thankful that the Bowers had lived so far out of town, away from everyone else. Occasionally, a faint moo would sound from the paddocks off to the right, or an owl would break the silence with their eerie hoot, letting her know she wasn't alone.

She stayed there, with head bowed until the bodies had turned to ash, lighting match after match until the deed was done. Not once did she move from her silent vigil. When the sun began to peek over the horizon, she picked up the shovel and replaced the upturned dirt in the grave, covering the sin within before cleaning up and moving back to the pick-up. No second glances were spared as she drove away, finally leaving her bully behind her.

* * *

**_Bowers Farmhouse, Present Day_**

Tear-stained and silent, Katherine stood at the edge of the unmarked gravesite, now overrun by the wild blackberry bush. Munching on the sweet fruit as the juice dripped down from the corners of her mouth, standing in the same place and pose that she had all those years ago. _Has it really been twenty years? It sure doesn't feel like it. Is this what you felt like, Stan? When Mike called you, is this what you felt like? Like Pandora had just opened her damned box once again._

**_CRUNCH! SNAP!_**

The sound of approaching footsteps in the dark caused Katherine to spin on her heel just in time to see the glint of a knife coming for her. Instinctively raising an arm up to block the incoming weapon, she hissed through her teeth when the blade sliced through her skin, drawing a line of blood across her wrist.

Maniacal laughter followed the blade and out of the shadows stepped a crazed Henry Bowers. It seemed the years had not been kind to the eldest Bowers child. Where he was once a wiry teen with waxy blonde hair, he was now a pudgy man with crazed eyes and greasy hair still cut into the same mullet.

"You bastard!" Katherine growled. Lashing out with her leg, she hit him right in the crotch. Dropping his knife, Bowers fell like a sack of groaning potatoes, right into the line of Katherine's incoming knee which nailed him in the face. Even when he was lying on the floor with knife strewn off of the side, Katherine raised her foot above his head and kicked him so hard, she felt her steel-covered toes ring with the force of it.

_That'll hurt tomorrow. _Katherine thought victoriously as she stood over the unconscious form of Henry Bowers. _Serves him right. _Quickly clamping her other hand over the bleeding wrist, Katherine turned back to her truck and pulled out the first-aid kit she kept in the glovebox. With practised hands, she set about cleaning and bandaging the wound, before she got in and left the farmhouse behind her.

* * *

_**Derry Townhouse, Present Day**_

"Why didn't you tell me Stan died?" Katherine asked the Reaper in her passenger seat as they sat outside the Derry Townhouse.

"It wasn't my place" Georgie replied quietly, legs swinging.

"Wasn't your place?! He was the closest thing I had to a brother! And now he's gone! And you're saying it wasn't _your place?!" _

"I didn't escort his soul, Katherine. I wanted to, but Death had already assigned me to the Derry case. She wanted me out here first before the others arrived"

"Others? This is gonna be one big shit show, innit?"

"…" Georgie didn't say anything in reply, but grimaced as he turned to stare out the window at the figures moving around inside.

"Thanks, great talk" Katherine sassed, climbing out of the vehicle and heading inside.

Inside, Katherine made a beeline for the bar that stood in the room adjacent to the hall. Peeling off her peacoat and hanging it over the back of one of the chairs, she moved soundlessly between the scattered chairs and Losers to where the spirits were stored behind the bar.

"Where were you?" Ben asked when Katherine stalked in through the door and made a beeline for the bar.

"Out" Katherine replied shortly.

"What happened to you?" Eddie questioned, his eagle eyes zoning in on the bandage wrapped around her wrist.

"I ran into Bowers" Katherine replied absentmindedly as she stepped around Richie at the counter and browsed the choice spirits, "Do we have any whiskey?"

"Whisk—Are you okay?" Beverly asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Barely nicked me" Katherine replied, before her eyes lit up at the bottle of Tidewalker Bourbon sitting in front of her. Plucking the bottle from the shelf, Katherine pulled the cork out with her teeth, before spitting it out and drinking straight from the bottle.

She easily gulped down at least a quarter of the bottle before she came up for air, letting go of the bottle neck with a '_pop'_. The bourbon was pleasantly smooth with hints of oak & caramel, and went down like water. "What?" Katherine asked when she turned to find all eyes on her.

"Nothing" Eddie muttered.

"That's impressive" Commented Richie.

"Thanks" Katherine saluted him with the bottle as she leant on the countertop and turned her attention back to the others,"Now what's the problem? Why're you all gathered 'round here like the Mystery Inc?"

"Beverly said she'd seen Stan die before it happened" Ben supplied.

"What?" Katherine turned to him, "Like…what's it called? A prophet?"

"Uh…"

"Yeah, actually—" Eddie piped up, "—What _do_ you mean you've seen us all die?"

"Yeah, 'cause I gotta be honest, that's a pretty fucked up thing to just drop on somebody" Richie added.

Beverly hastily wiped away her tears before she replied, "…Every night since Derry, I've…been having these nightmares. People in pain, people dying, people…"

"So you have nightmares? I have nightmares, people have nightmares. But that doesn't mean that your visions are true" Eddie rationalised.

"I've watched every single one of us as we've…"

"You've seen every single one of us what?" Bill entered the room with Mike in tow.

"…It's the place where Stanley wound up…That's how we end" Beverly whimpered.

"Okay, how come the rest of us aren't seeing that shit? I mean what makes her so different?" Richie piped up.

"The Deadlights" Mike supplied. Katherine's blood ran cold. Flashes of spinning lights and gaping galaxies hidden behind swirling shark teeth burned in her mind.

"Deadlights?" Bill questioned, his thoughts going back to that day. "She was the only one of us who got c-caught in the Deadlights that day!"

"We were _all _touched by IT—" Mike continued on feverishly, "—Changed. Deep down, like an infection or a virus. A virus! You understand! The virus, it's been growing for twenty-seven years! This whole time: metastasising. It just got to Stan first because—"

"—Because he was the weakest" Richie ended.

"Jesus Christ, Rich!" Bill cursed, Katherine sharing his sentiments.

"I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking, man"

"I mean, Rich, c'me on"

"What Beverly sees, it will come to pass" Mike pushed on, "It's what'll happen to all of us eventually. Unless we stop it"

"How the hell are supposed to do that?!" Eddie demanded.

"The ritual of Chüd—the native people, the first ones who fought IT, they have a saying: _All living things must abide by the laws of the shape they inhabit—"_

"A tribal ritual?!" Said Richie, "Are you fucking kidding me, man?! Alright, there's gotta be another way. C'me on, Midget you studied this stuff!"

"Funnily enough, we didn't cover homicidal inter-dimensional shapeshifting clowns" Katherine replied tartly.

"Alright, then this thing comes back every what? Twenty-seven years? Just kick the can down the road and do it then" Richie suggested.

"Wait we'll be seventy years old, asshole" Eddie retorted.

"…It doesn't work that way" Beverly protested, "None of us make it another twenty years and the way it happens…"

"So if we don't beat it at this cycle…" Ben started.

"We die" Bill ended.

"Horribly" Eddie tacked on.

"Yeah, I don't need the 'horribly' part" Richie muttered.

"I didn't say it! She said it, not me!"

"Alright guys, I've seen w-w-what he's talking about and it's a-a-all true. It's the only way. If we want this ritual to work…" Bill spoke up.

"We have to remember" Mike ended.

"Remember what?" Katherine asked, taking another swig of the bourbon.


	18. Now it's Official!

**_"…Memory, all alone in the moonlight,  
_****_I can smile at the old days, I was beautiful then.  
_****_I remember the time I knew what happiness was,  
_****_Let the memory live again…"—_****_Memory_****_, Jennifer Hudson_**

Old newspapers flew through the streets like tumbleweed in the Wild West and familiar missing posters plastered every surface in town; from the walls to the lampposts to the streets themselves. It was like nothing and changed, but it had.

"It'll be easier to show you, and we don't have much time." Mike said as he led the Losers through the desolate town of Derry bright and early the next morning. None of them had slept—even if Mike would've let them, Katherine doubted any of them would've been able to."The cycle ends soon, and once it does…"

"…We're fucked" Bill ended.

Traipsing through the Barrens was almost like walking back into time. With the waist-high grassed that swished and swayed when you walked through it or the towering trees that ran either side of the river, which in turn flowed into the canal. A few times Katherine had to run to keep up with the long strides of the elder Losers, and each time earned a teasing grin from Richie who clearly had a joke or a taunt resting on the tip of his tongue.

"The Barrens…" Beverly murmured when the group spread out amongst the clearing, remembering the fun times they had there.

"This is where we came…" Ben reminisced, "…after the rock fight"

"The clubhouse!" Richie piped up next, his eyes lighting up in recognition.

"Yeah! You built that for us!" Katherine added, gesturing towards Ben who moved forward to look for the door.

"Yeah, yeah, the hatch has gotta be around here someplace…"

"Oh yeah! I do remember that!" Eddie chimed in just as Bill had to catch Beverly as she went nose first over an outstretched log.

"Y'know what? I think the door was more, like, around here!" Ben called as he stomped on the ground.

"Hey Ben, maybe you shouldn't—" Katherine called out just as the aforementioned Loser fell straight through the rotten wood beneath his feet. "— Do that"

"…Found it" Ben's voice trailed up from the musty clubhouse, "I'M OKAY! COME DOWN!"

* * *

**_Losers' Clubhouse, Barrens, 1988_**

Taking the rickety ladder one rung at a time, Katherine followed after Beverly as she entered the dugout that Ben had been keen to show them. The dimly lit dugout had been lined with logs and lumps of wood that held back the compacted dirt walls and kept them from caving in on them. Moving further into the dark, Katherine ran a hand along the clay wall as she disappeared from sight, tracing the boundaries of the dugout and leaving the elder Losers' behind her.

In actuality it wasn't very big, the clubhouse, but to a seven year old it was huge. The wobbly planks on the floor made for a great balancing beam routine and the shelf-like hole off to the side of the main 'room' was just large enough for a small body to fit snuggly inside.

"What the dick is this?" Richie commented, coming into the dark clubhouse and moving about, filled with curiosity as he was. "How'd you build it?"

"_When _did you build it?" Bill tacked on, coming down next and looking around.

"Here and there, I guess…" Ben supplied as Eddie, Mike and Stanley followed after, "It was already dug out from something, so I just had to reinforce the walls and gets some wood for—for the roof, door and that was pretty much it. Pretty good for my first time, huh?"

Katherine jumped at the sudden noise that came from a sheet of metal falling to the ground just behind Beverly, barely missing her when Ben leaned up against a post. She wasn't the only one.

"Now _that's _a cool feature!" Richie grinned, "What happens when you put your hand on the other one, Professor?"

"S-see this is _exactly _there are safety codes! Why we have permits!" Eddie began to rapidly rant, "This place is a death trap! You understand that?"

"I-it's a work in progress, okay Eddie?" Ben defended weakly.

"Just so you know: if I get hurt, you're reliable" Eddie moved out of Ben's face before turning to smack a worn-out device hanging from the ceiling, "Also what it this? Is this an iron maiden?"

"That's—that's a flashlight"

"What is that? A horse hitch? When do you have horse—oh! This is cool!"

"That was, like, three dollars so please be careful with that" Ben warned as Eddie picked up a wooden paddle ball and began to play with it.

"I have one of these" Eddie began to aim the little rubber ball towards Stanley's face, "Stan you see this?"

"Yeah, c-can you maybe not?" Stanley flinched back from the flying rubber ball.

"Maybe not, what? Maybe not, what? Be awesome and have fun? And celebrate the awesome magic of the paddle ball!"

Katherine watched on as Stanley smacked the toy out of Eddie's hands and then watched as the little rubbed ball snapped from the paddle and rolled under one of the loosely placed floorboards. "Oh good going, fucknut! You broke his thing!" Eddie turned on Stanley.

_"I _broke it?" Stanley reiterated.

"Yeah! You broke it with your face!"

"What?"

"I'm not putting my fucking hand down there!"

* * *

**_Losers' Clubhouse, Barrens, Present Day_**

Moving through the old clubhouse wasn't much different that it had been when she was a child. At least for Katherine, who didn't have to duck her head to move around. A small smile made its way onto her lips as she and the others reminisced over the memories and little knick-knacks stored inside.

From the weather-worn band and movie posters pinned to the walls, to the old magazines that lay curling and bitten at the corners. Plucking up a little stone figurine from the line-up on the clay shelf, Katherine smiled as she ran her thumb over the well-worn grooves carved into it. The obnoxiously large grin told her who it was before she even flipped the stone over to see the engraving on the back.

_STAN U._

Over the years, Katherine had made a little stone figurine for all of the Losers; each one better than the last as her talents grew and grew. Putting Stanley's back, Katherine let her eyes trail over the others. Each and every one of them held some kind of memory from that point in her life, like Eddie's (who was pictured with a large pill in his hands) from when she had secretly saved up enough money to get a contraceptive implanted into her arm so she didn't have to take those godforsaken pills anymore.

Or Richie's with his giant coke-bottle glasses, that brought her back to the time in ninth grade when she and Liam Woods had snuck off to the dump to light up some fireworks; before they frolicked in the waters of the Quarry in nothing but their birthday suits.

Moving on, Katherine found an old moth-eaten _My Little Pony _sleeping bag which she stashed there along with a couple of pillows and a teddy bear that one of her boyfriends had won at the fair one year, and were now tatty & stank to high heaven. After the incident with IT, Katherine had spent a lot of nights in the clubhouse—a lot of days too—feeling safe in the dimly lit little dugout. Which was a little odd, considering how close it was to IT's lair.

"Hey Losers!" Suddenly came a rather familiar and creepy voice from the depths of the dugout, drawing everyone's attention towards it, "Time to float…!" Katherine tensed, along with the others, and took up arms at the familiar voice. Gripping tight to the pocket knife stashed in her pocket, she turned slowly to face the incoming threat and when she saw a flicker of movement coming from the shadows, she wasted no time in flinging her weapon across the room and straight towards the voice.

"Jesus Christ!" Richie swore coming out of the dark, when the pocket knife buried itself into the wooden post next to him. "Still got that aim then, Midge?"

"Fuck Richie!" Bill cursed, banging his head on an overhanging piece of lumber when he stepped backwards.

"Dude!" Eddie complained.

"Remember he used to say that?" Richie continued on, moving further into the light as Katherine trudged over to the post and ever-so-carefully yanked the pocket knife out of it. "And he did that little dance…am I the only one who remembers this shit?"

"Are you going to be like this the entire time we're home?" Eddie asked.

"Alright, just trying to add some levity to this shit. I'll go fuck myself" Richie whistled off into a corner.

"Don't be so fucking terrible!" Eddie murmured to Richie.

"Hey, you guys?" Bill spoke up, pulling out an old rusted biscuit container, "It-it—this s-says S-Stan. For the use…of L-L-Losers only"

"Bill…" Eddie warned as Bill open the old container and pulled out an old shower cap.

* * *

**_Losers' Clubhouse, Barrens, 1988_**

"What the fuck is this?" Richie demanded from his place in the hammock. Staring up at Stanley, Richie questioned the Jewish boy who had quietly presented him with a shower cap, which he in turn was wearing also.

"So you don't get spiders stuck in your hair when you're down here" Stanley replied as if it were obvious.

"Stanley, we're not afraid of fucking spiders!" Richie tossed the shower cap to the floor as Stan stormed off to pick it up and revealed the rest of the Losers putting their own ones on. "I stand corrected"

"Ha! That's a first!" Beverly chuckled as Eddie yanked his shower cap from his head and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Touché"

"Hey, Rich, you're ten minutes are up" Eddie stormed over to Richie who had gone back to reading his comic book. Katherine watched from her little dugout shelf with hungry eyes, as if she were watching the TV, the little half-carved stone in her hands long forgotten. The arguments between Eddie and Richie were always funny.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Richie questioned innocently.

"The hammock! Ten minutes each was the rule!"

"I don't see any sign" Richie looked around.

"Are you being this way, right now?"

"Really?"

"Why would there be a sign if it was a verbal agreement?" Mike shared a grin with Katherine as he sat down on the swing next to her.

"I don't—"

"—We agreed on the fucking rules!" The argument kind of ended when Eddie leapt into the hammock, on top of Richie and the two tousled for a moment until Richie put Eddie in a headlock; where thereupon he tried to make him eat dirt.

"…I was thinking about applying" Ben spoke to Beverly off to the side where he stood reinforcing one of the posts.

"I'll do that—" Richie interjected, with Eddie's socked foot brushing his cheeks, "—I'll do anything to get the hell outta Derry"

"Man, when I graduate I wanna got to Florida" Mike added.

"What's in Florida, Mikey?" Katherine asked.

"Uh, I dunno. I guess—I guess it's just somewhere I've always wanted to go"

"Stan you should go right on to Florida—" Richie piped up, barely glancing up from the comic he was reading as he and Eddie top-and-tailed in the hammock. "—You already act 80. You'd clean up with all the grandmas!"

"…Do…do you guys think we'll still be friends?" Stan asked quietly, "When we're older?"

"What?" Eddie looked over his shoulder at his friend.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Katherine added.

"D-do any of your parents still have their friends from middle school? I mean, things might be different then, we all might be different…"

"We'll a-all still be f-friends. I d-don't think that just g-g-goes away because we get older" Bill reassured him.

"Yeah, Stan, c'me on! You don't have to be so sad" Beverly teased him lightheartedly.

* * *

**_Losers' Clubhouse, Barrens, Present Day_**

"He was old before his time" Ben smiled sadly as the group remembered the day.

"Yeah…" Eddie mumbled, "Wonder what he would've been like growing up?"

"Probably what he was like as a kid…the best" Richie replied.

"Here" Bill tossed Richie the spare shower cap, before the bespectacled man turned to his friend.

"Alright Mike, what are we doing here?" Richie asked.

"The ritual—" Mike rose to his feet, "—to perform it requires a sacrifice"

"Sacrifice? I nominate Midge"

"Wait! What? Why?" Katherine fired back.

" 'Cause you're little, you'll fit on a barbecue" He reasoned.

"Hey! I might be 5'1", but I can still kick your ass!"

"It's n-not that kind of s-sacrifice" Bill interjected as Richie moved to sit down.

"You better not be asking for sexual favours, Mikey!" Katherine warned, turning on the man with a pointed look. " 'Cause I love you guys, but not like that"

"W-what? No! Look, the past is buried—" Mike spluttered a little at the accusation and tried to ignore Eddie's sniggering in the corner, "—But you're gonna have to dig it up. Piece by piece, and these pieces? These…artefacts? That's why we're here, _they _are what you'll sacrifice and since Stan isn't here to find his, I figure we should all be here together to find his artefact"

"I think Bill just did that" Eddie replied putting the shower cap on.

Climbing out of the clubhouse was much harder than it had been climbing in. It was only with the help of Mike, who all but hauled her out of the hole, did Katherine get back up to the surface where the others were all milling about trying to take it all in. "Okay, Mike, so where do we find _our _tokens?" Eddie questioned, fiddling with the shower cap in his hands.

"Yeah, 'cause I gotta be honest, man, with all due respect, this is _fucking _stupid!" Richie agreed, "All right? Why do we need tokens? We already remember everything! Saving Bev, defeating IT…I mean we're caught up!"

"That's not everything" Mike disagreed, "We fought, but what happened after that? Before the house on Neibolt? Think"

"W-we c-c-can't remember, can we?" Questioned Bill as the Losers shared looks of confusion.

"See there's more to our story, what happened that summer and those blank spaces? Like pages torn out of a book? That's what you need to find"

"Oh _shit" _Katherine swore as a long forgotten memory flashed before her eyes.

"You remember something, Midge?"

"Y-yeah" She sighed heavily, her gaze not leaving the young Reaper standing just behind Bill, as her eyes glazed over.

"Well, w-what was it?" Bill asked concerned, as he turned to look over his shoulder and follow her gaze.

"It's not something you wanna hear, if you wanna keep your breakfast"

"What happened to you, Kat?" Beverly murmured quietly.

"So much" Her glazed-over eyes blinked rapidly as she snapped back to attention, "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"…We need to split up, you each need to find your artefact—" Mike continued after sharing a concerned look with the elder Losers, "—Alone. That's important. When you do, meet me at the library tonight"

"Ah! I gotta…I gotta say statistically speaking—you look at survival scenarios, we're gonna do much better as a group" Said Eddie.

"Yeah, splitting up would be _dumb_, man. We gotta go _together, _right? We were together that summer!" Richie agreed.

"No" Bill interjected sharply, "Not that w-w-whole summer"

"…Well, I guess that's it then" Katherine sighed, shrugging her shoulders as if to say 'what can ya do?' and turned to leave.

"Hey! Where are you going?!" Eddie called out.

"Me and Toto are headin' back down the blood-stained road" Katherine called sassily over her shoulder as she trudged out of the woods, leaving the elder Losers behind her.


	19. Double, Double, Toil & Trouble

**_"…I see fire inside the mountain,  
_****_I see fire burning the trees,  
_****_I see fire hollowing souls…"  
-_****_I See Fire_****_, Ed Sheeran_**

"I don't know if I can do this" Katherine muttered standing at the threshold of the scorched ruins of _Saint Ursula's Home for Children. _Her steel-clad toes just barely scraping at the blackened ash that still carpeted the floor even to this day.

"You can do this" Georgie encouraged, slipping his small hand into hers, "I'll be here too"

"Don't…don't 'cha want to go see Bill?" Katherine stalled.

"I can do that later" Georgie replied, tugging her over the threshold, "C'me on"

Katherine heaved in a deep breath and tightened her hold on the Reaper as she finally crossed the threshold, as if she was preparing herself for what she would find inside. The painted brick walls still stood even after all the abuse they had received over the years, but the once towering wooden roof was long gone, only leaving the skeletal remains blackened and burnt from the fire.

Stepping over the remains of porcelain plates and around iron beds, Katherine led the way into the basement where the torture chambers still lay untouched. The few doors there were dedicated to dark bunker cells where the children were placed in for solitary or isolation punishments. Katherine knew these cells inside and out as she had spent a lot of her childhood in there.

Not because she was a bad child nor was she a glutton for punishment, but because the Sisters hadn't banked on her returning from her confrontation with IT. Apparently, they thought she was a demon spawn so bad that even the Devil himself didn't want her…or so they said. Many times.

Moving even further into the pits of the orphanage, Katherine eventually found herself standing in her own cell. Even just standing there in the doorway with Georgie gripping tight to her hand, Katherine felt herself slipping into her memories as she stared at the hastily carved summoning circle on the floor.

* * *

**_Cell D, Saint Ursula's Home for Children, 1999_**

On the 21st of October 1999, at the stroke of midnight, Katherine A. Ursa officially turned eighteen. Most of her classmates would celebrate this big milestone with a big party filled with booze, boobs and stupidity. But for Katherine? She was celebrating her eighteenth birthday stuck in the dark of a familiar cell beneath _Saint Ursula's Home for Children; _just as she had every year since her eighth birthday.

But this time it would be the last. That cheesy _Supernatural_ series that she had discovered when she was fifteen, proved to be rather fruitful. So much in fact, that it helped to pull the wool from over her eyes concerning the Sisters of the orphanage. Where she had always thought them to be cruel and heartless women ironically in charge of children, it turned out they were in fact witches using said children as sacrifices for their magics and rituals to whatever God or demon they worshiped.

And Katherine had had enough. Taking a page out of their own book, she called forth a demon—a real, honest-to-God demon—straight from the pits of Hell. Even though she had read the latest novel from the _Supernatural _series rather fervently, it still didn't prepare her for the rather handsome creature that she was faced with.

Expecting a rather grotesque being with horns and blood red skin—more so from the various teachings over the years than her own beliefs—Katherine was rather surprised at who had arrived. He was a tall man, lanky and thin with a 5 o'clock shadow that brushed his lower jaw; although his clothing choices left a lot to be desired.

He wore a dark embroidered Edwardian trench coat over top of burgundy pinstriped bellbottom jeans that flared out around the foam jandals he wore. Tucked into the waist of his bellbottoms, an oversized well-worn _Beatles_ t-shirt billowed out like a make-shift potbelly.

"Oui, ma chérie?" Drawled the demon, his red beady eyes roving over her crouched form in front of the summoning circle.

"Uh…" Katherine seemed at a loss for words, watching the spiralling smoke twisting up and away from the cigar settled in his deft fingers.

"English?" He asked, gazing around at the dark room, before returning back to her. Katherine was almost sure that he was gazing into her soul. "Non, _American. _Well, what is your wish, fleur? Do you wish to be free? I must say, zis…établissement would make anyone want to leave" He used the smoking cigar to gesture wildly to the dank room around them. "I wouldn't blame you"

"Uh, no, no" Katherine shook herself and rose to her feet, "I want the Sisters gone. I don't care how"

"Ze Sisters? Zey are human?"

"They're witches"

"Oh mon Dieu! I zought I smelt witch! Well, where are zey zen? In fact, where are we, if you don't mind"

"Oh, the Sisters are upstairs on the second floor, they'll be in the parlour room by now. But we're in the basement"

"Non, non! I meant what city, town…y'know…where?"

"Oh! We're in Derry"

"Derry?" The demon suddenly appeared apprehensive as if Katherine had told him the Devil was standing right behind him.

"Mmhm, in Maine" Katherine nodded.

"Mes excuses chaton, but did you just say we're in Derry, Maine?"

"Yes?" Katherine furrowed her brows in confusion, "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Wrong! Ma fleur! No demon in his right mind would take a deal in Derry! Au revoir!"

And with a crack, the crossroad demon disappeared with nae an explanation nor sealed deal in his pocket leaving Katherine with more questions than answers. "Now what am I supposed to do? The book never said demons would _refuse _a deal!" She grew frustrated at the uncooperative demon.

Fury and desperation began to bubble and boil beneath her skin, like water in a pot, Katherine felt herself become lost to her emotions. Fury at the Sisters who held her captive, at the crossroads demon who refused to help, at the friends who had left her behind, at the parents who didn't want her. And then there was the desperation; desperation to leave these shackles behind, to be free, to watch the fucking witches burn!

The devilish Voice in her head returned, it whispered promises of power and strength, one that would topple the witches from their perch. They would burn along with sins, it promised they would. Katherine had ignored and pushed the Voice aside for so many years; at first she had treated it as an imaginary friend in her head and as she grew, she thought maybe she was just crazy. But there had been incidents where the Voice had helped her, _protected _her even when she hadn't asked.

But now she was asking with arms opened wide, she was welcoming the Voice and the power that came with it. Turning to face the dimly lit mirror where her own reflection grinned back at her, inverse in colour and surrounded by twirling balls of light.

"How?" Asked Katherine.

_"Dig deep" _Crackled the Voice in her head as her reflection's mouth moved of its own accord, _"It isn't just power, my dear, it's rage. It's the desire to change the world and the will to do it. Command the Sisters"_

Pushing her overwhelming emotions out and using them as her intent to destroy her captors, Katherine called forth the witches who had tortured her all her life. Closing her eyes, she heaved a deep breath and raised her hands up, palms facing the door. Her voice was strong and her order absolute; they would come, whether they wanted to or not. "I order the Saint Ursula Sisters to stop! Go in peace or face my wrath!"

Outside thunder crashed and lightning crackled low to the ground, lighting up the small room just enough for Katherine to see the Sisters appear in her cell; called by her word and her power. All thirteen stood in a cramped semi-circle in front of her, each wearing the habits in various stages of array.

"Who are _you _to order us? We've felt the wrath of humans once child, we won't be hung again!" Mother Superior snarled at Katherine, her figure imposing in the dim light. But for once, Katherine felt no fear. In this dark room where many of her nightmares unfolded, for once she was the monster under the bed. Bright glowing eyes met Mother Superior's head-on and Katherine noticed several of the Sisters crossing themselves at her appearance.

Where her once story blue eyes sat perched behind dark curls, now sat gleaming bright balls of light. Like torches in the night, Katherine stared out at the Sisters as she and the Voice became one; power seeping from her form like water from an overly soaked sponge. When Katherine spoke again, her voice was layered with the Voice's and together they spoke as one.

"No! Not hung, _burned!" _They purred.

"Burn us, mortal? We are not of this world! No earthly fire can burn us!" Mother laughed.

"No, not earthly fire. Hellfire"

"None but the most powerful can summon it: Devils, and in the history of witches, only four! No mortal can wield that kind of power! It's a wonder you were even able to summon us here!"

"Are you sure about that?" They asked, head tilting to the side mockingly, "I, Katherine Agnes Ursa, child of night, call forth: _fire from the Pit!"_

At her call, wild blue flames engulfed Mother's hands and they spread, jumping from Sister to Sister until all were covered in the hellish spark. Words that Katherine never knew sprung to mind and they spilled from her lips like silk; soft and sweet like she'd known them all her life.

_"Ater ignus, fusca fume. _

_Te evoco ut potentium tuam monstres_

_Cupidibus flames hit veni_

_Caelo sub isto, harc arboretum consumo_

_Lucum tenebrasque tuas monstra_

_Impetuum tuum evoco ad devorandum_

_Hang arboretum ac omnes hospital devora!"_

Wailing screams pierced the air as the wild hellfire climbed higher and higher. When it had finished jumping from Sisters to Sister, it began to consume everything else in its path. From the stone walls to the wood doors, to the iron beds and flea market sheets. Nothing was safe, not even the other children. All around them, the cries of the Sisters combined with those of the children and together they went up in hell flame. A gorgeous searing inferno that consumed their souls, releasing their pain into the night, until their charred bodies fell from the sky like ash.

Hours later, when the Derry Fire Department came to call with their wailing sirens bleeding through the night, it was Katherine who sat smudged in ash. Drained of her sudden power and watching the overly dressed men cautiously approach her naked form lay curled up amongst the debris where she sat at the epicentre of the destruction. All around her, the blast circle expanded outwards with her at the center. There was nae a scratch on her.

She would of course, be serving a prison sentence for arsony, because this was Derry and though the mortality rate had decreased over the years, she still had the worst luck. Sometimes she wondered if the Sisters had cursed her in some way, not that she wouldn't put it passed them.

In the end, she exchanged one pair of shackles for another, and she didn't give a fuck about it; Katherine was grinning when they smuggled her out of her dismal little hometown. Portland was a far cry from Derry, and Katherine thanked her stars for it. She was 23 when she got out.

* * *

**_Saint Ursula's Home for Children Ruins, Present Day_**

"You did the right thing, y'know" Georgie's voice shook Katherine from her memories.

"Yeah…" Katherine sighed, pulling the young Reaper out of the dim room and back into the upper levels of the building, "I know"

"Did you find your token?"

"Yeah…" Katherine fiddled with the silver pendant hung around her neck, "I think so. C'me on let's go"

"What?" The sudden appearance of a third voice made Katherine freeze in her tracks. A _very _familiar nightmarish voice. "No 'hello?" Katherine slowly turned to face the owner of the voice, her eyes wide as if she couldn't believe he was really there.

"Pennywise" Katherine breathed, hands shaking at the clown you sat cross-legged on one of the upturned iron beds.

"No one wants to play with me anymore!" IT whined childishly. Positioning herself in front of the young Reaper, Katherine cautiously reached back for the pistols tucked into the holsters hidden under her pit, keeping her eyes locked onto the clown in front of her."But you'll play with me, won't you? We had such fun here!"

Swiftly drawing the pistols from their holsters, Katherine fired several rounds of salt and mountain ash towards the clown, backing off down the front stairs as she did so. The rounds didn't seem to be doing much damage aside from the occasional burn or scratch that would appear on the clown. Though this may have been IT just playing with her.

"Oh yes! Such fun!" IT crowed, jumping from the bed, "And you brought little Georgie too! Such fun! We're gonna have so much fun!"

When her heel hit the pavement outside, Katherine grabbed Georgie around the wrist and wasted no time in booking it to her Jeep where it still sat on the other side of the road. Mindless of the neighbours around them, Katherine drove away from the orphanage like the Devil was on her tail, and let's be fair, she wasn't that far off.


	20. It's a Stitch Up!

**_"…Sometimes I feel like giving up,  
_****_but I just can't  
_****_It isn't in my blood…"  
_****_—In My Blood_****_, Shawn Mendes_**

Katherine ended up being the first to return to the townhouse, or at least as far as she could tell, and much like when she first arrived she beelined straight for the bar. Pulling a bottle of rum from the shelf, she hunkered down behind the bar after pulling out a bag of salted pretzels from underneath the counter.

"Kat?" Georgie hedged, sitting at the base of the booze shelf, "Kat? Are you okay?"

"IT's back!" Katherine laughed a little hysterically, "Mikey was right! IT's back! Holy shit! Can we really do this? I mean I know my childhood fears are probably pitiful compared to the shit I've been through now, but…what if he shows me shit from hunting?…_What if he shows me Nogitsunes? Or Djinns? Or Wendigos? Or—"_

"KATHERINE!"

_"Eep!"_

"Calm down! You'll be okay!"

"How can you say that? Reapers don't show up _early _to a scene unless something _major _is going down!"

"…I know, trust me, I know. But you need to calm down! You have the most experience in this field, and you're no use to anyone if you're like this!"

"Y-yeah" Katherine heaved a shuddering sigh as she clasped tight to the bottle in her hands, "You're right"

"I know I am"

"Bossy"

"Mngh!" Georgie childishly poked out his tongue at the hunter. Leaning her head back against the bar counter behind her, Katherine closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to collect herself once more. Pushing the fear aside in favour of logic, Katherine began to make a list of things to do.

"Okay, okay. First things first, Mikey mentioned a ritual—" Katherine placed the bag of pretzels in her lap so she could fish her cellphone out of her jeans' pocket, "—So let's start there"

"Who are you calling?" Georgie asked.

"Garth" Katherine replied, skipping over the numerous notifications about missed calls and unseen messages from the Winchesters and Castiel. A little ways down, she found the number she was looking for. Tapping the number on the screen that sat beneath a rather goofy image of the hunter in a printed cowboy hat and frilled suede jacket. She only had to wait for a moment or two before the other end was picked up.

_"Yo, Katie! What'cha got?" _Garth Fitzgerald answered, his Missourian drawl floating through the phone.

"Hey Gar, you got anything on rituals?" Katherine asked, getting right into it.

_"Rituals? What kind? We talking witches, demons?"_

"No clue, just got a name"

_"What is it?"_

"Uh, the ritual of Chüd"

_"Chüd, Chüd, Chüd…Sounds native; hang on" _There was the sound of shuffling papers as the werewolf hunter flicked through his collection of tomes; some of which he'd inherited from Bobby. _" 'ere we go; you got a pen?"_

"Uh hang on…" Katherine tucked the cell between her ear and shoulder as she searched underneath the counter for something to use. Thankfully she was able to find a notepad and pen tucked away amongst the menus. "Yeah, go on"

_"Right, says 'ere the ritual of Chüd is a battle of wills"_

"Huh?"

_"There's not much here. It just says that tokens have to be burnt in a vessel whilst the chant is recited"_

"Chant?" Katherine paused in her note-taking, the messy shorthand easily taking up the page.

_"Doesn't say"_

"Thanks anyway, Gar"

_"What are ya hunting that need this anyway?"_

"Oh…it's a humdinger of a monster, that's for damn sure"

_"Well, best of luck and be sure to return the Winchester's calls"_

"…They called you, didn't they?" Katherine hung her head with a sigh.

_"They're just worried 'bout ya, Katie" _Garth's voice took on a fatherly tone as he replied.

"They've got their own things to worry about. 'Sides, I did leave a message 'fore I left"

_"They said it was a quick message on a sticky note you stuck to the fridge"_

"Yeah, well, I knew they'd read it eventually"

_"Why didn't you tell 'em yourself?"_

"…You know how they are, shoot first, questions later and all that. This was something I needed to do myself, and no manner of explanations would have deterred them"

_"Yeah, sounds like them" _Garth sighed, _"You be careful now, ya hear? I wanna hear how everything went when you're done"_

"Alright, I will" Katherine smiled, "Thanks Gar"

_"See ya, Katie"_

**_CLICK_**

"What'd he say?" Georgie asked when she ended the call.

"Apparently it's all about wills" Katherine sighed, running down her face in exasperation.

"Wills?"

"Yeah, something 'bout facing your fears and all that"

"Oh"

"Heh heh, this'll be fun" Katherine's voice took on a little hysterical note again as she downed more of the rum in her hand.

She sat there for a moment or two more before restlessness took over. "Nope. Can't do it. Can't do it!" Katherine jumped out from behind the bar, and made her way towards the front door as she headed straight for her Jeep parked outside. Shifting through the junk in her trunk, Katherine pulled out a couple of silver-bladed daggers (one of which was an angel blade she had nicked at some point), as well as her trusty knuckledusters, plus a round of silver, salt and mountain ash bullets…really all the gear she would typically need to face a shapeshifter.

Grabbing the whetstone and cloth from the glovebox, she headed back inside and towards the bar where she had left her bag of pretzels and the opened bottle of rum on the counter. Situating herself, she set to work pulling apart the pistols (still tucked in at her waist) and cleaning the individual pieces, if only so it would give her hands and mind something to do.

Soon enough, the others began to arrive but they paid her no mind as continued her task. Plugging in one of her earphones, she half-listened to the old rock ballads playing in her ear, and half-listened to the conversation in the foyer. Over in the foyer, Ben and Beverly's voices floated out from the stairs. Katherine kept quiet as she listened in. "Hey" Beverly softly greeted.

"Hey" Replied Ben in the same tone, "So…what did you see out there?"

"Something I wished I hadn't"

_You and me both, sister. _Katherine snorted.

"So what? We just…we-we kill IT and then we just forget everything again?" Ben asked as he moved to sit down.

"I hope so" Beverly replied, "Don't you?"

"I dunno, I…I-I guess I wanna hold onto the good stuff, y'know?"

"Mm"

"C'me on! There must be something in the past that you don't wanna forget again"

"…I remember being scared shitless"

"Cold"

"I remember you guys in your tidy whities"

"Okay, please forget _that"_

"I remember this—" She spoke fondly as rustling sounded when Beverly moved and unfolded what sounded like a piece of paper, "—I remember the boy who wrote it for me…Not him so much, but…how he made me feel and…a kiss…It's all still blurry, but the longer we're here, the more I can see it, the more I can see that moment, and the more I can see…Bill. I think"

_Oh Ben! _Katherine sighed quietly, well aware of the blonde's crush on the redhead. It hadn't exactly been a secret when they were kids, nor when they had returned.

"I dunno, do you remember…?" Beverly trailed off.

"Bev, uh—" Ben heaved a sigh and plucked up some courage but was cut off by the sound of the front door slamming open and then shut again as someone stormed inside.

"Move. Move!" Richie demanded as he stormed up the stairs.

"What's wrong?" Beverly asked, moving slightly so that the bespectacled man could move passed.

"I'm leaving"

"What? You can't leave man! If you split, we all die!" Ben tried, rising to his feet.

"Yeah, I'll take my chances. We're gonna die anyway" Richie retorted.

"Rich! _Rich!" _Ben followed his friend up the stairs as he tried to convince him to stay. Soon enough, the door opened again to reveal a rather putrid-smelling Ed who also stormed up the stairs towards his room, ignoring Beverly's worried calls as he did so.

Turning back to the task at hand, Katherine absent mindlessly noted that Bill had arrived and was talking to Beverly in quiet tones. The rhythmic sounds of the angel blade sliding against the whetstone in tune with the sounds of Billy Joel's '_We Didn't Start the Fire' _filled her ears and she was reminded of the days when she would tuck herself away with a couple of rocks and her little rock hammer; carving creatures out of nothing. A fond smile melted onto her lips at the thought as she hummed along to the song.

_"GUYS!"_ Ed's yell cut through any lingering thoughts and Katherine launched herself from the bar, quickening tucking the weapons away save for the knuckleduster which she slipped on. "Kat?!" Ben squeaked when the young woman emerged into the foyer, but she merely brushed passed him by and followed Beverly up the stairs. Ben soon followed after.

"Ed?" Beverly questioned quickly taking the stairs two and at time.

"Holy shit!" Katherine cursed upon finding not IT as she had imagined, but Ed bleeding from the face where a large gash had sliced through his cheek.

"Bowers' is in my room" He gurgled, knees collapsing under him as he fell to the floor. Thankfully, Beverly was there and helped him to sit against the wall. "In the bathroom…"

While Ben wasted no time in rushing in to confront Bowers in the bathroom, Beverly did her best to pinch the wound shut. "Don't worry, Eddie" Katherine gently knelt down next to the two on the floor, "We'll get ya stitched up. You'll be good as new" She smiled, gently turning his chin to the side so she could see the wound better. "You're lucky, it's not that deep. What he do, anyway?"

"Stabbed me in the face with a fucking knife" Ed spat, blood dribbling from his mouth.

"Mm" Katherine hummed as she rose to her feet and headed towards the bathroom where the room's medicine cabinet was kept. "I should've hit him harder"

_"What…?" _Came Beverly's voice from the hallway as Katherine pulled dental floss, a needle and bandages from the medicine cabinet.

"You mentioned Bowers the other night…" Ed called.

"Yeah…" Katherine replied over her shoulder. She spared a quick look over at Ben who seemed to be glued to the window frame that held the shattered glass. "Ben?" She gently touched his arm, jolting him from his thoughts "You all right?"

"Yeah…" Ben nodded unconvincingly "Yeah, I'm fine…Ed…! We should…"

"I've got it…" Leading the way out of the bathroom to where the two still sat in the hall, Katherine quickly set the items down and got to work.

"Do you know what you're doing, Kat?" Ben questioned.

"Uh huh" She nodded, easily taking Beverly's place, "Try not to move, Ed, this'll hurt—drink the rum, it'll help"

While Ed took a couple of swigs from the bottle, she did her best to wipe away as much of the existing blood as she could before she prepped the needle. With the needle sterilised in the rum and then the point heated by the lighter she had stuffed in her pocket, she proceeded to thread the dental floss through the eye of the needle before turning to a rather pale Ed who had watched her practised hands with trepidation.

"Ready?" She asked. All Ed could do was nod. "Right, here we go…" With practised hands, she pierced his skin, unflinching as it disappeared into the flesh and came back out again. The butterfly stitches ran along the thankfully clean cut, pulling his face back together again as if she were darning a sock.

"You've done this before…" Beverly noted, watching the younger woman's practised hands with ease whilst Ben looked away, unable to watch the needle pierce his friend's skin.

"Mmhm" Katherine hummed, sticking her tongue out in concentration, "I _couldn't tell you_ how many times I had to stitch myself up after a pissy pest decided they didn't want to be evicted"

"Really?"

"Uh huh, I think the worst one was from a pregnant fox I had to pull out of a water drain…" _More like the demon with the BDSM fetish…_

"It bit you?!"

"It gave it a damn good go. Nah, it's mostly been a couple of shallow scratches and cuts over the years, nothing too serious, y'know?" _Lie. _"Can you pass me the gauze and tape, Bev?" Katherine asked as she tied off the last of the stitches. After receiving the items from the ginger, Katherine quickly cut out a square to the right size and taped it to Ed's face with the medical tape. "All done"

"You okay, Eds?" Beverly asked, hauling him to his feet.

"Yeah, yeah, I think so" Ed nodded, clutching on to the mostly empty bottle of booze as he took another couple of swigs from it; whether do to the soreness of the newly stitched wound or just because, Katherine didn't know. But she wasn't going to ask, it wasn't like she wouldn't have done the same.

"What happened to Bowers?" Beverly asked Ben.

"He, uh, jumped outta the window" He replied, cautiously following after the others as they slowly made their way down the stairs and back into the foyer proper.

_"What?"_


	21. Return to Neibolt

**_"…Like what's up danger?  
_****_Like what's up danger?  
_****_Can't stop me now!"  
_****_—_****_What's Up Danger?,_****_ Black Caviar & Blackway_**

Following the incident with their individual token hunt and stab-happy Bowers in the bathroom, the remaining Losers found themselves marching through the doors of the old town library. Typically the building would be locked at this hour, but Mike had made sure to leave it unlocked for them when they returned with their chosen items. And when they did, they sight they came upon was not one any of them had expected.

"Mike!" Beverly called, leading the way "HEY MIKE!…AH! OH MY GOD!" She gasped, her hands slapped over her mouth at the sight she beheld. Both Mike and Richie were rising to their feet relatively unharmed, though Richie was vehemently wiping his mouth on his jacket sleeve—probably something to do with the pile of vomit off to the side—and an adult Bowers lay crumpled at their feet with an old axe lodged in his brain. Katherine vindictively noted that the black eye she had given the man a few days prior was still there, brilliantly purple and practically swelled shut.

"…Are you alright?" Ben questioned.

"No I'm not alright!" Richie snapped, "I just fucking killed a guy!"

"I was…talking to Mike…"

"Speaking of, Mikey" Katherine cut in, hands on hips as she turned to the elder Loser "What the _hell _is this damned ritual you want us to do? Huh? We what? Burn tokens? Strip naked and dance around in the dark? Sacrifice a lamb? Just what the hell are you wanting us to do, Mikey?"

"Look, I _told you _the ritual of Chüd—" Mike began to reply.

"—Yes, yes, the ritual of Chüd! Face our fears, and all that! But you haven't told us what the fuck that involves! C'me on Mikey! I wanna know what we're facing here! How the _hell_ is the ritual s'posed to be any different than last time, huh? I don't wanna walk into the dark on this!"

"She's got a point, Mike" Richie turned to the librarian as Ben began to bandage his wrist. "You haven't really told us anything"

Mike floundered for a response, his face contorting into strange expressions as he tried to come up with something to pacify the group with. Luckily for him however, Katherine's ringtone for the Winchester's, chose that specific moment to blast from her pockets. _Carry on my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done…_"Of for _fuck's sake…"_ Katherine growled under her breath as she whipped out her singing phone and scrunched up her nose at the ID caller plastered across the screen "I gotta take this—" She excused, before pointedly glaring at Mike, "—I'm not done with you"

Stepping outside, Katherine braced herself for the call she was about to receive. "Let's get this over with…" She sighed and pressed the call button. "Hello?"

_"KATHERINE AGNES URSA! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" _Dean bellowed through the phone, making Katherine wince as she snatched the device away from her ear at the volume.

"Jesus Dean! Could you be any louder? I don't think the Hell could hear you" She sassed, wiggling a finger in her ringing ear.

_"You listen here, you little shit—Hey!" _There was the sound of grumbling and rustling on the other end of the phone as it changed hands; presumably snatched by Sam.

_"We're s'posed to be calling her not interrogating her!" _Sam's scolded his brother, his voice faintly heard through the phone over his brother's grumbles.

"Hey Sam" Katherine sighed tiredly, fiddling with her pendant as she did so. "What's up?"

_"Katie, where are you? You weren't answering our calls or texts or anything!" _Sam sounded concerned and a little annoyed—probably at his elder brother's antics.

"I told you, there was a family emergency and I had to come home" _Lie. Lie. Lie._

_"You left us a sticky note in glitter pen that you stuck to the fridge"_

"What's the difference?"

_"Look if you're in trouble, we—we can help…just let us know where you are"_

"Cas can't find me, can he?"

_"…No"_

"Yeah, there's reason for that…and it's not the angel deterrent"

_"What?" _Dean's voice perked up at that, notifying her that she was probably on speaker phone.

"Not important" Katherine shook her head as she straightened up, "Look, I can't talk long, I'm at a funeral" _Kind of._

_"Oh…" _Sam sounded a little surprised at that._ "You—you could've said so, we wouldn't have stopped you from going"_

"C'me on Sam, you and Dean are a giant pair of mother hens—"

_"—Hey!—" _Dean's voice sounded from the background.

"—Don't deny it" She smiled, "Sides, if it wasn't you guys, it would've been Jody or Foxy, and they're both just 'bout as bad as each other…" She spared a glance over her shoulder back through the library doors where the rest of the Losers were gathered, " I shouldn't be much longer—maybe a day or two and then you can mother hen me as much as you want"

_"…We are not mother hens!" _Dean grumbled.

"Oh yes you are" Katherine smiled, thankful that the boys had believed the lie. "Look, I gotta go…"

_"Bye, Katie" _Sam replied.

"See ya" Katherine ended the call, mumbling to herself as she flicked a text to Castiel letting her know she was okay, now that she had talked to the Winchesters. "Now, I just gotta hope that they don't talk to Gar"

Creeping back into the library, Katherine was met with Mike's questioning gaze that flowed over each of them. "Where's Bill?" She seemed to have missed something.

"There was a kid…" Beverly murmured, her face growing pale as she replied.

"What?" All eyes turned to her as Katherine came to lean against one of the large oak tables scattered around the library.

"He said there was a kid—he's lives in Bill's old house—said IT was taunting him…how he couldn't save him or-or…"

"Or?" Mike pushed as Ben pulled him over to the adjacent table and began to bandage the cut on his arm.

"Georgie" Beverly's voice was nary above a whisper, but it echoed throughout the library like it was bellowed. Hope and dread blossomed in Katherine's heart, for all the while Beverly recounted her tale, Katherine had been staring into the eyes of the Denborough Reaper. There was hope that whomever Bill was looking for would remain unharmed, but dread for those who remained in the library alongside one of Death's couriers.

_Who is it? _Her eyes seemed to say, _Who of us is going to die? _Katherine wasn't stupid, she had noticed the abundance of Reapers popping up around the town throughout the day. Most were gathered around certain spots like the Neibolt house or the park; some sat on roofs or lounged on park benches as they waited for the inevitable death that was to follow. They were like vultures waiting for their next meal to fall into their laps. But for one to follow them specifically, even with their previous earthly attachments? Reapers weren't known for their sentiments, it was only a matter of time.

"Bill" Mike's strong voice pulled Katherine from her thoughts as he called the living last member of their group. He hadn't put the device on speaker phone, but the volume was turned up so loud that it may as well have been, for Katherine could easily hear the faint replies of Bill as he strutted through the active fairgrounds. "We're all at the library, where are you at?"

_"He took a little k-k-kid, Mikey! He took a little kid! Right in f-fucking front of me!" _Bill stammered, his voice thick with emotions.

"No, no, no, no!" Mike jumped to his feet as he tried to persuade Bill to stick to the plan. "Just—just come _here _to the library. We can talk about the plan—"

_"—I'm gonna go kill IT!" _Bill replied, making Katherine tense at the firm declaration. This was not something he could do alone.

"Bill—!"

_"—Don't want a-any of you to get k-k-k-killed with me!"_

"Bill! Bill!" Mike shouted into the phone, but he only received the dial tone in reply. "He's gone to fight IT alone" Mike threw his hands up in exasperation, turning back to the others.

"What?" Richie hissed.

_"Alone"_ Mike reiterated as he pulled out an odd-looking container and slammed it down on the table in front of him to emphasise his point. Slipping from the table, Katherine padded over to the container, Mike had set down and flipped it over, trying to study all the different carvings engraved on the four sides. _Gar was right, this does look native, maybe even tribal…_Katherine mused as Richie peered over her shoulder at the container. At least until Mike snatched in out of her hands. "It's about the group, the ritual doesn't work without the group!"

"Mike, did he tell you where he was going?" Ben asked.

"If he really wanted to kill Pennywise, there's only one place he'll go" Beverley whispered, her vacant look turning into something filled with fear.

"The same place the ritual needs to be performed" Mike added.

"Here we go again" Katherine sighed, running a hand through her messy locks.

"Oh, we're not gonna like this, are we?" Ed sighed dejectedly.

"Heh…Fuck" Ben murmured, echoing what they were all feeling.

* * *

Much like the Bowers' house and the ruins of Old Derry, not much had changed about the house on Neibolt street. It was still overrun with decrepit flora that climbed through every crack and cranny it could find; really at this point, the only thing keeping it still standing was the ivy interwoven with the scaffolds. It's a wonder it had stayed standing for as long as it did. The garden—if you could call it that—was overgrown as well, by this point it was mostly brambles bushes and tangled weeds, like something out of a fairy tale or a horror movie. Remarkably, the path up to the house remained untouched (save for the cracked terracotta tiles that lined the way) and carved a route up to the creepy house.

"BILL!" Beverly screamed, racing up the path and stopping the man on the front steps. The rest of the Losers came to a stop behind her.

"N-no! You guys! No!" Bill cried when he spotted them, "I s-s-started all this, th-this is my fault that you're all here. This curse, this fucking…thing that's inside you all, i-it started growing the day I made you go down into the m-m-made you go down into the Barrens because all I care about was finding G-G-Georgie…"

"Well, unless _you're _the one killing kids, Billy, I think you're talking outta your ass" Katherine sassed, hands on hips despite the fear that was racing through her. All these years later, Katherine still found a sense of dreadful fear curling up in the pit of her gut, that threatened to envelope her. Bill (along with the others) appeared surprised at what she had said or even how she had said it, but he was adamant in his resolve.

"Look, I-I'm gonna g-go in there, and I don't know what's gonna happen. But I c-can't ask you to do this! It's—" He trailed off as Beverly knelt down and plucked a rusty iron pike from the dead grass at their feet. One that looked familiar to the brunette, for some reason.

"Well, we're not asking you either" Beverly retorted, gripping tight to the iron pike.

"Bev—"

"—We didn't do it alone then, Bill" Mike interjected, "And we're not gonna do this alone, now"

"Losers stick together" Ben added.

"…So does somebody wanna…?" Ed awkwardly piped up, "Say something…?"

"Richie said it b-b-b-est when we were here last" Bill admitted.

"I did?" Richie puzzled, "I don't wanna die?"

"Not that"

"You're lucky we're not measuring dicks?" The others shared a disbelieving look at that, a couple even raising eyebrows at the very-Richie comment.

"No"

"Uh…" Richie paused for a moment as he searched his memories, "Let's kill this fucking clown?"

"Yeah" Bill grinned wickedly.

"Let's kill this _fucking_ clown!"


	22. Welcome to the Horror Show

**_"Why I hear you screaming?  
_****_Tonight all the monsters gonna dance  
_****_We're comin' to get ya!  
_****_We're comin' to get ya!  
_****_Callin' all the monsters…"  
_****_—Calling all the Monsters_****_, China A. McClaine_**

Unlike the boys, Katherine hadn't entered the caverns beneath Derry through the well house back in the 80s, in fact, she didn't even remember how she had gotten there. One moment she had been in her cell in the orphanage, the next she was tiredly traipsing around the sewers like a drowned rat. It hadn't been fun. Actually, the last time she had been in the Neibolt house was during the _first time_ the kids had entered only to face certain fears when they had scraped against the surface of the true horrors IT could control. It had been scary then, and it was scary now, time didn't seemed relevant as she crept after the other Losers through the dark house.

Floorboards creaked dangerously underfoot like they would break at any moment, doors swung on their hinges as they barely held on and the whole entire house seemed to groan as it leaned precariously to and fro in a non-existent breeze. The dark was only pierced by the single beams of light that shone from their torches as they ducked under overhanging cobwebs and coughed out clouds of dust. Black acidic tar bubbled down the staircase and dribbled down the walls in great big oozing clumps in that stereotypical horror movie trope. All it was really missing was the blood on the walls telling them they were going to die, or to get out by the demon/vengeful spirit that lived there.

"Well" Richie sassed as his torchlight came to rest on the bubbling stairs, "I _love _what he's done with the place"

"Beep beep, Richie" Beverly muttered, easily falling back into old habits. Bill moved first, heading out of the foyer and into the kitchen where the hole in the ceiling and broken table from Ed's fall (back in the 80s) still remained. The others followed soon after, their torches sweeping this way and that as their hearts pounded in their chests. Katherine noticed that everything seemed to have been left untouched from how they had left it last. The only difference now, was that time had placed dust on every single surface and eroded away most of the appliances still intact, that is except for one item.

"Ooh look!" Katherine skipped over to the crystalline bowl of pristine sweets sitting out on the counter, much as they had been twenty-seven years ago. "The sweets are still here!"

_"Don't you dare eat them!"_ Ed snarled, pointing a finger at the young hunter.

"What? It's just a sweet, Eddie" Katherine smiled, feeling like she was reciting a script of some kind.

"Oh _no!_ We are _not _going through this again!" Ed jumped forth and snatched the bowl from the counter before she could pluck one from the pile. Moving over to the broken window, he chucked the entire thing outside.

"Was that really necessary?" Katherine raised an eyebrow at Ed when she heard the glass bowl shatter outside. Ed pointedly glared at her.

"Hey, that's the basement, right?" Richie stifled a grin at their little show and pointed his torchlight over towards an open door that led to an adjoining staircase. Bill went to investigate, leaving the others to inspect the old room.

He had barely put a foot on the stairs before Ben cried out in pain and dropped his torch to the floor where it rolled away, leaving him in the dark and in pain. "Ben?" Beverly worriedly called out as she and Mike raced back into living room where Ben collapsed into their arms. At the same time, Katherine, Ed, Richie and Bill were left stranded in the kitchen as the rickety door between the two rooms slammed shut; somehow locking itself despite the keyhole being stuffed with old cigarette butts.

"No! No! No! Ben! BEN!" Bill and Ed pounded on the door, trying their best to get through but to no avail. Katherine's worry's for her friend were soon cut short however by the banging coming from the fridge. Torchlight snapping over to the dirty and humming appliance, Katherine tensed as she shared a look with the men in the room.

"That can't be good, right?" Richie commented with a tinge of hysteria. Hands wandered to the angel blade strapped to her thigh as the fridge rattled and rocked violently against the old floorboards. _Here we go! _Sucking in a deep breath, Katherine prepared herself for what she could've sworn was trying to get out.

When the fridge door did swing open, it revealed something that made Katherine pause. It was all jumbled up and dirty tucked away in an impossibly twisted position, but it was undoubtedly a person in the fridge—a kid, if she'd had to guess from the size of them. "Eurgh!" Ed gagged, as the head of the kid rolled slowly upwards from its impossible position to grin at them.

"It's Stan?" Richie puzzled as if he couldn't quite believe it. Next door, the sounds of Ben's screams continued to howl, but they were drowned out by their neighbours' confusion at what they had discovered in the fridge.

_"AHHHHHH!"_ Stan suddenly screeched, scaring the Losers.

"OH MY GOD!" Richie jumped in shock at the sudden noise. But it escalated further still; Stan's screams didn't stop until his head rolled forward and right off of his body.

"He's lost his head!" Katherine squeaked as she jumped out of the way of the rolling skull that barrelled forth like a bowling ball. Tears rolled down her cheeks at the sight of her pseudo brother; it was hard for her to remember that this was IT's doing. "I don't think that's what they mean, when they say _'heads will roll!"_

"Not the time, Kat!" Richie scolded as he too jumped out of the way. All three men, sandwiched themselves against opposite walls of the kitchen as Katherine jumped up onto what remained of the counter.

"Oh, like you can talk!" She snapped little hysterically. Eventually Stan's head came to a stop in front of a dusty upturned drawer, and his eyes (which had rolled up into the back of his head) rolled back down into place. A look of sereneness overcame him, almost like he was enjoying the stream of moonlight that fell though the hole in the ceiling. Until his beaten and decaying face sat up on his stumpy neck and turned towards Bill.

"I'd still be alive if it wasn't for you, Bill" Stan accused the man.

"No, no, no!" Bill mumbled, stumbling away from the grotesque head of his childhood friend. Katherine winced at the sound of something crackling beneath his skin as something moved beneath it.

"Richie, what's happening to me?" Stan whimpered.

"Uh…" Richie shook his head in wide-eyed confusion as several spindly legs covered in blood and brain matter burst out from the sides of his head and propped him up like an arachnid.

"You've gotta be _fucking kidding!" _Richie cursed .

"It's a spider, _it's a spider!" _Katherine whimpered hysterically, scrambling back as far as she could go, "He's a spider! Why's he a _fucking spider?!"_

"Your scared of spiders?" Richie turned on a paling Katherine who looked ready to high-tail it out of there, "You're in pest control, how are you scared of spiders?!"

_"I don't do spiders!" _Katherine cried as spider-Stan laughed jovially.

He was still for a moment and everyone seemed to hold their breaths as they waited for IT to make its next move. And then all at once, he attacked. Stan was a jumble of gnashing fangs and hairy spider legs that ran in a creepy akimbo movement around the kitchen; going first towards Richie who dove out of the way with a yelp, Stan moved next to Ed who's high-pitched scream made Katherine picture him in pigtails and a little pink dress—something that would have made her laugh given any other situation.

As it was, she screamed just as high and loud when Stan turned on her next. _"AHHHHHH!" _Katherine screamed as she leapt from the counter, only just missing the jumping head as it leapt for her and disappeared down some crack. "OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod!" Practically falling into Bill's arms, she rambled at high speeds as her heart jackhammered in her chest.

"Are you alright?" Bill asked, gripping tight to her arms.

_"He's a spider!" _Pale and shaking, Katherine spun out of Bill's hold before spinning in tight circles with her torchlight flashing to and fro as she tried to locate the spider-Stan. _"Why is it always the fucking spiders?!"_

"Uh, guys?" Ed had squashed himself into one of the corners until he was practically part of the wallpaper. "W-where did he g-go?"

"Ed?" Richie moved over to the man trembling the corner, "You okay, man?"

"Um…I—" Ed was quickly cut off however by a thick trail of drool that slipped from the rafters like slime and dropped at their feet. Following the trail of saliva upwards, all eyes went to the grinning arachnid hybrid in the rafters.

"Oh, there he is" Richie stated, his tone completely casual.

At least until spider-Stan leapt from the rafters and clung to his face like a parasite. Screams of terror filled the room as Richie collapsed backwards onto the musty kitchen floor. Ed remained sandwiched into the corner and Katherine appeared frozen like a deer in the headlights as the pair watched Bill try's best to wrangle the creature trying to maul off of Richie's face. A Voice that was not her own whispered delectably horrible things in her head, one particular Voice that she had not heard in a long time and one she had hoped to never hear again.

_"Death! Death! Let it all rain down!  
__Death! Death! Bring it all over town!  
__Give me your fears!  
__Give me your fright!  
__Try no matter how hard,  
__You won't escape my might!" _

Voice cackled inside her head, the eery tune reminding her of the nursery rhyme, _Ring-a-Ring-a-Rosie. _It painted pictures of horrific nightmares, ones which threatened to overwhelm her. Faintly she could hear Bill yelling at the pair of them to help, but she couldn't seem to see passed the glazed over eyes nor hear passed the ringing in her ears—or was that Voice? Her breath came in rasping gasps, and her legs felt like they were glued to the floor. She'd fought demons & angels, wendigos & vampires, werewolves & djins without a care in the world…but this? This right here is what set her on edge—returning to a nightmare she had long since buried.

_"I'll paint the town red with your guts and entrails!  
__I'll paint the town brown with your shit and acrid smells!  
__You'll never escape me, oh little lost soul!  
__You'll never escape the Devil's hellhole!"_

Bill appeared to be fighting a losing battle against spider-Stan; every time he pulled the creature free of Richie's screaming face, the beastly creature would just force itself forward once more. For just a head, it appeared to have a fair amount of force behind its swing. Somehow, a combination of Richie's screams of terror and Bill's yells at the two were enough to jolt Katherine out of her reverie, pushing Voice back just far enough for her to take action. Striding forth on shaky legs and panting as if she had just run a marathon, Katherine whipped out the angel blade from its holster and slammed it through the back of Stan's head, shoving the silver blade right up to its hilt.

Everything seemed to fall still. Absentmindedly she noticed the kitchen door banging open as the others entered the room, but their entrance fell on deaf ears. Richie's terrified screams cut short with a squeak as her blade stopped mere millimetres from the tip of his nose and he stared at it with eyes blown wide behind his coke-bottle glasses. Grasping the hilt in two hands, Katherine gave a sharp twist as she pushed the blade in further, only satisfied when the squelching from the head was the only noise coming from it.

Her gasping pants had quietened as Beverly and Mike raced after Ben (who was seemingly okay) into the kitchen and with another quick tug of the blade, she pulled it free of the now still spider-Stan's head. Blood dribbled upwards like flower petals as it had done twenty-seven years ago, and Bill stared at her through the droplets with the annoyed expression of an elder sibling. Not taking any chances, he palmed the creature and launched it across the room where it slammed against the wall next to the fridge and slumped to the floor.

Forgoing to clean the blade, Katherine shakily slid it back into its holster on her thigh and hurriedly wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans as she tried to not overthink the fact that she had just skewered Stan like a kebab. All eyes turned to watch as spider-Stan sluggishly pulled itself along the floor towards the darkened stairway. Once shadowed by the dark with only his blue eyes illuminated, he flashed the Losers a wicked taunting grin before rushing down the stairs towards the basement.

"I-is everybody okay?" Beverly moved first, helping Richie to clean and patch himself up. In the same instance, Bill angrily launched himself at Ed who hadn't moved an inch.

"He c-could've f-fucking died, man!" Bill grabbed onto Ed's shaking form and pulled him close, shaking him like a ragdoll. "You k-know that, right? Georgie's dead! And the kid's dead! Stanley's dead! Y-y-you want Richie too?! _You want Richie too?!"_

"I don't want—!" Ed cried around huffing breaths, "I don't! I don't! Please don't be mad Bill…" Bill's expression softened as he pulled back to see tears streaming down his friend's cheeks, "I…just scared"

"Th-that's what he w-w-wants, right?" Bill replied, "D-don't give it to him"

"What about you, Kat?" Bill turned to her, "Why'd you freeze?"

"I stabbed Stan…" Katherine whispered with a tinge of hysteria. Her lips seemed to move of their own accord and her sweaty hands rubbed against each other in an effort to calm herself, as she replied "Stabbed Stan, stabbed Stan, stabbed Stan, o_h God! _Gone, gone, gone…"

"Kat?" Ben hedged, coming up next to the rambling woman. Katherine felt guilty when she saw a flash of hurt quickly appear on his face when she flinched at his touch. It was soon gone however, and replaced with a look of concern. Not wanting to meet the worried and/or concerned gazes of the others, she pushed herself into his arms and gripped tight to his shirt like a scared child; his arms quickly snapped up and wrapped themselves around her shoulders.

"…Don't like spiders" With her face pressed into his stomach, she mumbled into his shirt.

"I can see why" Richie commented as he slowly sat up with some help from Beverly.

"Beep beep, Richie" Beverly murmured.


	23. Care for a Dip?

**_"…Down, down to Goblin-town  
_****_You go, my lad!  
_****_Ho, ho! My lad!…  
_****_Below, my lad!  
_****_Ho, ho! My lad!…"  
_****_—_****_Down, Down to Goblin Town, _****_John Stephenson_**

Their torchlights did little to pierce the inky black darkness of the basement; not even the dusty light hanging over their heads did much to help as it barely cast the stairs into a sickly green light. Creeping down the rickety staircase that croaked and groaned with every step, the Losers soon found themselves huddled around a crumbling stone well in the dark room; their only source of natural light from a small hole in the wall that barely graced the old stone tops.

"H-How are we s'posed to get down?" Katherine peered over the ridge of stone well, her fingers gripping tight to the edge in fear. Even with their torches pointing straight down, the bottom had yet to be seen; it reminded her of stories the Sisters used to tell about tunnels to Hell.

"We'll use the rope, like last time" Mike replied as he gave the old rope tied to the pulley above the well, a good tug.

"Well, how am I s'posed to know?" Katherine rocked back on her feet, "I was already in the sewers by the time you guys turned up"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, how _did _you end up in the sewers?" Richie asked as he helped haul the long rope closer to them.

"No clue, just woke up there" Katherine shrugged, "One minute there's the fucking clown with glowing disco balls in my ce—room, the next I'm wandering 'round the sewers with all these bad dreams"

"Disco balls?"

"Yeah, there were three of them, I think"

"You don't mean—" Mike perked up.

"—The Deadlights" Beverley ended. At those words, flashes of memories appeared before her eyes. Lights. Teeth. Clown. Fear.

"…What d'you see?" Richie pursued.

"Hm?" Katherine hummed absentmindedly as Voice began to sing in her ear.

_Don't see nothing, don't hear nothing.  
__Only us in the dark, in the deep dark nothing.  
__Are you coming down?  
__Down, down, down to the deep dark nothing?  
__Love, won't you come down to lie with me?  
__Won't you bring me something?  
__In this deep dark nothing?_

"…t!…at!…KAT!" Mike clicked his fingers in front of her face.

"Yeah! Yeah? What?" Katherine blinked out of her head and turned to find the others looking at her with various looks of concern—or at least as far as she could see in the dark.

"We're just asking what you saw you looked at the Deadlights"

"N-nothing" She shook her head with a gulp, "It's nothing. Right, evil clown: let's go!"

Heaving a deep breath—of both bravery & fresh air—Katherine descended the frail rope into the depths of the deep well after the others. Mike took the lead with Ben & Bill following after; next went Richie & Ed with Beverly and Katherine bringing up the rear. Sloshing through the dank sewerage water, she did her best not to think about what was really floating passed her leg.

Eventually they made it through the twisting pipes to the main cavern where the tower of junk and floating kids once resided, back to where their first final battle against IT occurred. Now all that remained was an island of junk and a stink that made your eyes water. "Shit, this is it. This is where it happened" Ben announced, though he didn't really need to. Katherine fought the shudder that ran through her bones at the memories of this place—of the bad dreams that Pennywise gave to her.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Katherine slid into the deep water on the other side, doggy-paddling after Beverly as the others easily waded through the murky waters to the island in the middle of the cavern. "Eurgh! No! No, no, no!" Ed muttered as he squeamishly skirted a floating dolly & Beverly pushed it aside with the iron pike she had picked up along the way. Mike & Bill were the first to pull themselves from the water, with Richie & Ed close behind. Katherine had paddled passed Ben & Beverly who still remained in the water.

Gripping tight to an outcropping pale hand—which she hoped against hope, wasn't real—Katherine hauled herself up the heap of rubbish. After much fumbling she was able to make it onto a little red wagon that had begun to rust and wobbled slightly under her feet.

"Bev, what is it?" Ben whispered, catching the attention of the others as he spared a glance over his shoulder at the strawberry-blonde who appeared to be searching for something back up the pipe they had just emerged from. The Losers paused in their motions as they turned to face the woman, all of them tense & full of fear.

"I thought I heard somethi—" Beverly turned back to the rest of the Losers, "_AHHHHHHH!_" Only to be cut off by the sudden appearance of a large and monstrous creature. It almost looked like someone had taken an old balding pegdoll, added some nightmarish features & made it life size.

"BEV!" Katherine cried as the creature jerked to them with the woman still in its grasp.

"TIME TO SINK!" It laughed before yanking Beverly beneath the murky waters.

Katherine wasted no time in snatching the angel blade from its holster and shoving it between her teeth as she dove head first from the old wagon she stood on, sinking seamlessly into the murky waters below. Ignoring the splashes around her as her friends joined in the hunt for Beverly, Katherine was forever thankful that she had copied Ed and strapped her torch to her head like a miner, as it allowed her at least a little bit of visibility beneath the water.

A glimpse of leather & a flash of strawberry-blonde hair in front of her was all that Katherine could see in the dark waters, but she pushed on even as her blood rushed in her ears & the muck in the water bled into her eyes, making her narrow them even though she wanted nothing more than to wipe it away. Whatever this monstrosity that Pennywise had cooked up, it could move like a fucking beast through the water, easily slotting itself through the small gaps and holes created by the discarded toys left here to rot. At some point Katherine noticed that none of the men were by her side, having either been stopped by the small passageways created by junk or having run out of air, either way she was alone down there. Just her, IT & Beverly.

When the need for air became too apparent, Katherine latched herself onto a rusted ladder that jutted out from the bottom of the berg and grit her teeth in determination. Voice banged in her head, thrashed its metaphorical fists telling her to leave. It begged and whined, it shouted and cried, seemingly the only one who cared that they were about to die. _There! _A flash of strawberry-blonde fluttered across her vision followed by whispy white locks and spindly gnarled fingers as the creature circled around the berg, seemingly taunting the woman.

Pulling the angel blade from her teeth, she waited until it had come back around again, this time with Beverly who was far less lively than before. A single beady eye locked itself onto her small frame and she moved. Kicking off of the berg, Katherine rocketed towards the creature with angel blade glinting in the dark depths. A vengefulness she had never truly known spread through her and warmed her bones as she shoved the silver blade deep into the creature's eye, only just missing Beverly by the skin of her teeth.

Black dots danced on the edges of her vision and dark blood bled from the wound as she yanked Beverly out of its hold, barrel-rolling the three of them until it let go. Far above them, faint shouts and cries could only just be heard over the screeching wails of the monster, as the boys dove again & again, trying in vain to reach them. In a last ditch attempt, Katherine thread her fingers around Beverly's bra straps and—using the creature's face as a spring board—pushed the two back towards the surface.

Just as darkness descended over her vision, hands grabbed at the two women, hauling them to the surface where they basked in the dim light of the sewers. Clinging tight to people who held her, Katherine hacked and retched, coughing up what water had slipped through her lips; instead trading it for sweet, sweet lungfuls of musty air. "Mike?" Richie asked from above her as she collapsed against his chest, panting. Across from them, Beverly sat in Bill's arms, spluttering through tears and big breaths. "Where do we go from here?"

Once both of the girls had reclaimed their breaths and reassured everyone that they were fine—multiple times—the Losers found themselves standing around a circular trapdoor atop the berg of junk. Katherine furrowed her brows in thought as she tried to trace where the partial engraving might come from or if it could tell them anything else. When they all stood together, Mike began to chant.

"In the depths is where IT crept, in the beneath the foundling. In the depths is where IT crept, in the beneath the foundling" Mike mumbled, staring down at the door at their feet.

"Is he okay?" Ben nodded to Mike.

"I think at this point, that's a relative question" Richie nodded.

"What's on the other side?" Beverly asked.

"I dunno. No one does" Mike admitted before reaching down and opening the trapdoor.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Ben protested as the door squeaked on its hinges. "Mike!"

Just as looking into the well had revealed no end in sight, looking down into the tunnel beyond the trapdoor revealed nothing but cold, empty darkness. Katherine felt her heart grow still & her skin blistered with goosebumps as she stared down into the deep dark nothingness beyond. Mike, however, held no such qualms and quickly sat down, swinging his feet inside the hole. "Hey! Wait!" Ben protested.

"Mike!" Bill tried.

"All right" Mike leant over to grab his bag and torch, "See ya down there!"

_"MIKE!"_


	24. Set Fire to the Past

**_"…Ring-a-ring-a-rosie,  
_****_A pocket full of posy.  
_****_A tissue, a tissue, _****_we all fall down…"  
_****_—_****_Ring-A-Ring-A Rosie_**

There was a beat of silence as no one moved or breathed; none of the Losers could do anything as they watched the darkness swallow their friend. Steeling his gaze, Bill knelt next to the opening in the floor before flitting his eyes over the others."J-just stay…together" Bill coached before he too, descended into the darkness.

"Okay…" Ben nodded as he shone his torch down into the dark tunnel, not that it helped any.

"You guys…" Ed whined, his face pale and his limbs shaky. "I can't do it! I can't—"

"Ed—" Richie turned to him.

"—You saw what I did up there" Ed backed away from the manhole as Ben dropped in next. "I was—I was gonna let you die! I just fucking froze up! You let me go down there with you, I'm gonna get us all killed—!" Katherine could only watch with concerned eyes as Ed yanked out his inhaler from his pocket and sucked hard on it in panic. At least that was until Richie stormed forward and snatched the device from his grip.

"Gimme that! Gimme that—!" Richie struggled with Ed, just as they had done as kids.

"No! No!" Ed struggled.

"You little perve—!"

"I just—I need—"

"Nngh!" Richie shined his torchlight in Ed's face long enough for him to snatch the inhaler from the germaphobe's hand and step back, holding it hostage. "Listen to me: we had a moment, fine. But who killed a psychotic clown before they were 14?"

"…Me" Ed admitted.

"Who stabbed Bowers with a knife he pulled from his own face?"

"Also me"

"Who married a woman ten times his own body mass?"

"…Me"

"Yeah, you're braver than you think"

"—And stronger than you think, and smarter than you believe" Katherine chuckled from behind them.

"Winnie the Pooh? Really?" Richie glanced over his shoulder at the woman crouched by the open manhole. "Way to ruin the moment, Midge"

"I learnt from the best" Katherine ginned innocently up at the bespectacled man, as Ed softly thanked him for the pep talk.

Just as Katherine had pushed herself over the lip of the tunnel—thankful, once again, that she had strapped her torch to her forehead—and began to descend into the darkness, blinking rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting; she heard, more than saw, Ed & Richie move closer. Sparing a glance upwards, she noticed Beverly handing Ed the old iron pike from the rusty fence out of the street. "Take it" Beverly instructed, her voice echoing downwards as she handed him the make-shift weapon. "It kills monsters…"

"Does it?" Ed asked.

"Yeah…if you believe it does"

"Thanks for that"

Thankfully it didn't take long for the Losers to emerge from the craggy tunnel that led further into the Derry sewer system, and Katherine thanked her lucky stars as she shimmied through the small gap in the rock after Ben. _Holy. Shit. _Katherine stared wide-eyed at their surroundings as she followed the others into the open-plan cavern. "This is where IT hid" Mike supplied, standing out in the open before leading them up to the skeletal-looking altar.

"So what? This has been under Derry…forever?" Ed questioned as he stumbled over a stray skull.

"Not forever" Mike corrected, "Just a few million years"

"Oh God…" Katherine mumbled as her torch caught the light of a stalagmite erupting from the cavern wall and the darkened liquid that floated upwards from it, much like the blood had done all those years ago. If she had thought that the first cavern with the tower of junk and floating kids had been nightmarish, it had _nothing _on the one they had just stepped foot into. A skeletal altar sat in the middle of the cavern, directly below where the opening in the ceiling (which, if she'd happen to guess, connected to the large sewer pipe in the cavern above them). The dusty floor was littered with ash and bone, whilst the cave walls were damp and glistened with what she hoped was only water, but with Pennywise, you'd never truly know.

Getting straight to business, Mike set about placing the Native-looking vase in the middle of the altar with the lid off, before he lit a small fire inside and gestured for the other Losers to gather around the small pot alongside him. "IT can only be attacked in its true form" Mike began. "The ritual will show us"

"What is IT's true form?" Ben questioned.

"I hope its a puppy" Richie commented, trying to break the tension running high between them. "A little fluffy Pomeranian…I'll shut up"

"It's light" Mike continued on as if the other two hadn't spoken.

"Like the Deadlights?" Katherine knotted her brows.

"It's light that must be snuffed out by darkness" Mike answered, stoking the small fire until it danced above the rim of the pot. "Your artefacts—place them in the fire. Past must burn with the present"

With shaky hands Katherine undid the clasp of her Saint Ursula pendant; just as the others pulled their various artefacts from hidden pockets. An odd cocktail of feelings ran through her as she pulled the old chain free for the first in…ever. Like a dog free from its collar, she both missed the feeling of its familiar weight against her chest and loved the feeling of no longer having the old chain rubbing at her skin.

"Er…this is the-the boat that I built with G—with Georgie" Bill went first, dropping an old paper boat into the fire.

"It's uh, my inhaler" Ed went next, having one last suck at the thing.

"C'me on dude" Richie sighed as Ed chucked the inhaler into the flames.

"Something that I wish I had held onto" Beverly admitted, stroking the edges of a well-worn and blood-splattered postcard before dropping it into the flaming pot.

"Uh, this is a page from a year book and only one person signed" Ben sighed, staring down at the old piece of paper in his hands, "I probably should've forgotten it, but…I couldn't 'cause I kept it in my wallet…for twenty-seven years"

"Er, this is my tag from the orphanage" Katherine spoke up next as she rubbed her thumb over the well-worn groove in the pendant, unable to meet the eyes of the others. "We were all given one…God, I can't ever remember not wearing this stupid thing…" With a put-upon sigh, she dropped the silver pendant into the fire and watched as the silver was licked by the flames.

"This is a token from the Capital Theatre" Richie rushed, tossing the silver coin into the fire and refusing to give any more insight into why it was his artefact.

"You gonna burn an _actual _token?" Ed knotted his brow.

"Yeah, that's what you're s'posed to do, asshole"

"Do you have _any _idea how long that's gonna take to burn?"

"Yeah, but so is your inhaler, dude, or Midge's necklace"

"Guys, c'me on—" Ben scolded.

"—The toxic fumes & the plastic & shit, so—"

"Look closely at this" Mike interrupted, holding up his artefact—a bloody rock—as it glittered in the firelight, "You see it?"

"Mm" Beverly murmured stepping in for a closer look.

"It's where you hit Bowers"

"Heh! Rock fight!"

"The day these bonds were forged"

"That's not gonna burn either" Ed whispered to Mike, but he was ignored as the rock was added to the pile. "Oh! Wait!" Ed rummaged in his back pocket for a moment before he pulled out one of the old shower caps and tossed it into the flames. "Can't forget about Stan. Again"

The silence dragged on as together, the seven adult Losers just stood and watched as their most prized possessions burned away with the little pot at their feet. "Okay" Mike whispered, eager to get things underway. "Grab hands…c'me on!" Linking hands with Beverly & Bill, Katherine stood in the circle of Losers, just as they hadn't twenty-seven years ago when the blood oath had been made in a field of green. Silently and apprehensively, they waited and watched Mike for what was to happen next.

"The ritual of Chüd…it's a battle of wills" Said Mike.

_I knew it! _Katherine silently crowed as she shifted on her feet, _Thank you Gar!_

"The first step is our union" Mike gestured to their joint hands, "The second step is to gather the tokens and this is the final step…"

"Okay…" Katherine whispered as the fire in the pot suddenly went out. No wind, no breeze, no rhyme or reason; just out. And then up above came three things she had never thought she'd ever lay her eyes on again. Three ginormous balls of twisting light descended from the depths of darkness as it opened up like a throat and they swung in lazy circles around each other as they grew closer and closer. She did her best to ignore the excited buzzing of Voice in the back of her head, and instead focused on Mike's harried words.

"Don't look at 'em! They're Deadlights! Don't look at 'em!" Mike warned, making the Losers to either force their gazes away or slam their eyes shut. It wasn't soon after that, that Mike began to chant. "Turn light into dark, turn light into dark—SAY IT! SAY IT!"

"Turn light into dark! Turn light into dark! Light into dark! Turn light into dark! Turn light into dark!" Ben, Bill, Beverly, Ed, Richie & Katherine shouted as Mike recited something a little more native. Their harried voices overlapped and grew louder & louder as the Deadlights descended upon them, showering the group in blinding hot light. Voice sang hallelujahs in Katherine's head as Mike encouraged them to keep going.

"TURN LIGHT INTO DARK! TURN LIGHT INTO DARK! TURN LIGHT INTO DARK! TURN LIGHT INTO DARK!"

With her eyes screwed shut, Katherine was unable to see what was happening but she could feel blinding hot light wash over her body, with a force she couldn't even hope to describe. Holding tight to the hands on either side of her, she felt like she was being battered about in a wind tunnel that surrounded that poor little pot. Thankfully, it only lasted a few seconds before the lights were swallowed by the pot at their feet. Katherine was thankful that Mike wasted no time in slamming the lid shut, sealing the Deadlights inside.

"TURN LIGHT INTO DARK! TURN LIGHT INTO DARK! IS IT WORKING? DID WE DO IT?" Ed cried, the only one still chanting. For a moment everything seemed right, the Deadlights were sealed and the Losers all shared disbelieving looks of relief that the nightmare was over. But they were wrong.

Whilst Mike still held a lead-tight grip on the lid, he soon began to struggle with whatever was trying to escape. Katherine felt her eyes blow wide when she saw what it was; a dreaded balloon bulged out from beneath his fingertips and over the rim of the pot like a pimple ready to pop. "Mikey…" Katherine hedged, suddenly tense.

"Is this s'posed to happen?" Beverly asked hysterically.

"Mike, is this s'posed to be happening?" Richie rushed out as the balloon blew up to an impossible size.

"Oh God…!" Ed gasped as they all hurriedly scrambled off of the altar, escaping through the large shards and down onto the cavern floor.

"What the hell…" Katherine breathed as she scrambled backwards along the ground, watching as the bright red balloon bulged around the large shards. "Is this a bad dream?"

**_BANG!_**


	25. I'm not Okay with This

**_"…Bang bang, he shot me down  
_****_Bang bang, I hit the ground  
_****_Bang bang, that awful sound  
_****_Bang bang, my baby shot me down…"  
_****_—Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot me Down),_****_ Nancy Sinatra_**

The shockwave from the impossibly large balloon knocked everyone backwards, scattering across the floor like dominoes. Everything else became muffled, although her heart beat so loudly she was sure the others could hear it too. "Ah!" Katherine gasped as her ears popped painfully; the sound of the blood rushing through her ears, chimed in tune with the ringing from the blast, that now sang there.

Wiggling her fingers in her ears in an attempt to regain her hearing, Katherine shakily climbed to her feet as she squinted through the darkness, searching for the others. "BEV?" Katherine called, her voice sounding barely there when she spoke. "RICHIE? GUYS? WHERE ARE YOU?" The light from her cracked torch pierced the dark, creating a beacon for the others to flock to.

"…WE'RE…OKAY?" Ben was the first to emerge from the darkness with Beverly under his wing. Richie came next, shining his own torch in her eyes which she quickly winced away from.

"…CAN'T HEAR SHIT!" Bill was saying, his own hearing just as damaged as hers. "I CAN'T HEAR SHIT!"

"YOU ALL RIGHT?" Ben called as Richie slung an arm around Bill, steadying him and Beverly quickly hugged Katherine to her side, letting herself sag into the smaller woman in relief.

"YEAH, YEAH, I'M FINE!" Richie replied.

"WHERE'S MIKEY?" Katherine asked as she reluctantly pulled out of the hug. "AND EDDIE?"

"ED'S HERE!" Richie replied, swinging his light to the germaphobe behind him.

"I'M HERE! I'M HERE!" Chorused Ed as he hurried to join the Losers already gathered together.

"MIKE? HEY! MIKE!" Ben, in turn, spun around as he called for their last remaining member.

"I'M HERE!" Mike called, his breathing a little laboured as he jogged over to the group.

"'DID WE DO IT? DID WE DO IT? IS THAT IT?" Ed demanded.

"YEAH, WE PUT THE—THE TOKENS IN THE—THE THING" Richie agreed, "THAT'S GOOD RIGHT? WE DID IT, RIGHT?"

Just as the last of Katherine's hearing finally returned, she wished it hadn't. The familiar eerie voice that sounded behind them, made her yelp and jump around in fright at the taunting question put forth into the dark. "Oh did it work, Mikey?" IT laughed. "Did it work?"

"Holy shit!" Beverly cursed as everyone spun to face the clown's face now poking through a gap in between the shards. He stared at them with wide yellow eyes and a slanted smile.

"Oh God!" Katherine breathed, stumbling back a step or two as the bane of her nightmares took its terrifying form once more. That _bloody _clown! With its painted face and eyes that turned independently from one another! It had haunted her dreams as a child—more so, once she left Derry.

"Tell them _why_ your _silly little ritual _didn't work!" IT taunted, sliding down the shards to poke its head through another hole. "Tell them it's all just a…what's the word, Eds? Gazebo!"

"Mike…" Ed gulped as the tension in the room rose, "What's he talking about?"

"M-M-Mikey?" Bill stuttered as he scrambled to his feet.

"Ooh! Mikey!" IT scolded as he moved upwards again, "You never showed them the fourth side, did you? Hahaha!"

_"Fourth side?" _Katherine repeated, keeping her eyes on the prowling clown. "Mikey! What the _hell _is going on?!"

"Didn't want them to know!" IT laughed wickedly as it slithered about with serpentine movements; cutting across any kind of explanation that Mikey might've hoped to give. "Didn't want them to know what _actually _happed to the _poor_ Shokopiwah? Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum"

"Fuck Mikey! You lied to us _again?!" _Bill demanded as he finally rose to his feet and turned on their friend; but still had half a mind to keep the clown in his sights.

"No! They—they didn't—" Mikey cried as he tried to hurriedly defend himself. "They didn't believe! They didn't believe they could kill him! That's why it didn't work back then!"

"ARE YOU _FUCKING _KIDDING ME, MIKE?" Richie bellowed.

"We hurt him…!"

_"Fuck!"_

"Fuck _you, _Mikey!" Agreed Bill.

"I—I needed something!" Mikey scrambled, "Anything! For us to remember! Anything for us to _believe!_

_"FUCK!"_

As the trust in Mike began to crumble and the likelihoods of their deaths began to grow, the little pot in which the Deadlights had been sealed cracked open. Up they floated, up, up, up like twisting spotlights they rose into the sky. The white light was blinding and yet Katherine couldn't help but watch as they merged together, pounding against each other until they formed one giant ball of light. Absently, she heard Beverly call for them to look away, but Katherine couldn't tear her eyes away from the sight as Voice crowed their delights in her head.

The music started slow at first in her head and then began to pick up in tempo; much like it had all those years ago in the cell beneath the orphanage. Voice overwhelmed her, it sunk into her soul and gripped her tight; she was at its mercy, no matter how hard she tried to fight it. _"No!" _Katherine folded in half, clutching tight to her head as Voice sang loud and proud, pulling at her own lips to join in. "No, no, no, no, no!"

"Kat!"

"Katherine!"

"Midge!" She heard the others call, but their voices sounded muffled—even the hands at her sides were faint and barely there as IT's control sunk deeper and deeper.

"Oh _yes!" _IT sang jovially, "Yes, yes, yes, yes! Sing it! Sing itty-bitty Kat~er~ine! Sing your song! Sing it loud! Sing it proud! Show them who you _really _are!"

"No!_ Please—!"_ Katherine gasped as she slipped beneath Voice's control, and in turn, IT's. It was odd, watching her body move on its own—it was almost like an out-of-body experience as she was no longer in the driver's seat.

"Midge?" Richie questioned, his voice full of worry and his stance wary as she turned to face them with eyes tinged white, like they had rolled up into the back of her head.

"Oh my _God!" _Beverly gasped, hand slapping over her mouth as Katherine's movements were all akimbo.

_"Wolves asleep amidst the trees,  
__Bats all a swaying in the breeze.  
__But one soul lies anxious, wide awake  
__Fearing all manner of ghouls, hags & wraiths"_

Katherine sang, her voice layered with Voice's making it sound eerie and wrong as it bounced off the cavern walls and echoed around them. Trapped inside her own body, she could only watch as the elder Losers grew frightened—frightened of _her, _of IT.

_"For you Losers, sleep has flown  
__Don't dare let them tremble alone  
__For the Huntress, heartless & cold  
__Paid in coin of gold  
__She comes, she'll go leave naught behind  
__But heartache & woe,  
__Deep, deep woe"_

Ever so slowly, her hand reached into the back of her jeans where the twin pistols sat snug in her waistband, and although she tried to fight her own movements, she couldn't stop her arms as they removed the firearms and aimed them at her friends. At her family. She couldn't hear their protests, couldn't hear their pleas but she _could _see their fear, so prominently displayed as they scrambled away from her shaking hands.

_"La—la, la, la, la, la,  
__La—la, la, la, la, la  
__Angels are silent for the night  
__Demons turned in as daylight dies  
__But one soul lies anxious, wide awake  
__Fearing all manner of ghouls, hags & wraiths"_

**_BANG! BANG! BANG!_**

Her usually steady hands shook like marbles in a tin can as she fought against IT's will, against the voice in her head telling her to shoot them. Stiff fingers cocked the guns, swinging them wildly to aim at her frightened friends. Mercifully the shots missed them, if only by the skin of their teeth as she fought to regain control. It was dark in her head and she wanted this nightmare to end, but that didn't mean she wanted the Losers to die. She didn't want _t_heir blood on her hands too.

_"My dear Losers shut your eyes,  
__Lie still, lie silent utter no cries  
__As the Huntress, brave & bold  
__Paid in coin of gold  
__She'll chop & slice you  
__Cut & dice you,  
__Eat you up whole  
__Eat you whole"_

Tears ran down her cheeks like tiny waterfalls as both twin pistols were cocked again, but this time shaky arms brought the barrels back up to sit beneath her chin with the muzzles snuggled in close to her jugular. The click of the gun sounded loud in her ears even as Voice roared at her to shoot _them—_the_ Losers—_not _herself. _Her eyes turned skywards to where the Deadlights remained hovering above them. It would have been so easy, _so, so _easy to let go again, to fade away in the black of her mind as IT and the Deadlights swallowed her whole. But she didn't want to kill them, didn't want to kill her friends—her family anymore. She was sick of it.

Standing stock-still, Katherine silently battled against Voice as IT continued to monologue above her, taunting the elder Losers like he had when they were children—only this time, it was Katherine and not Bill who he held hostage. "Twenty-seven years" IT slunk from the shards with spider-like legs in the place of his human ones. "I dreamt of you—_hahaha_—I _craved _you! Oh I _missed _you! Waiting for this very moment!"

"I'm sorry, guys!" Mikey wept as he stood frozen unable to move even as IT reared back for its attacks. "I'm _so _sorry!"

"Time to flo~at!"

It was dark. It was so, so dark and Voice promised days of peace. Days she had dreamed of since she was a child. Safe in the dark…but wait. Wasn't there other things in the dark? Bad things? But no, Voice promised those things wouldn't be there, not in this dark. Unseeing white eyes overflowed with body-shuddering tears and the metal of the muzzle was cool against her flesh. So gentle, so supple, so easy to pierce. Just one little squeeze and then it was all over. No more demons, no more angels, no more monsters in the dark. Voice promised_ so much, _it almost sounded too good to be true…and yet so sweet. _Is it me? _She wondered. _Is it me you're here for, Georgie? Do I finally get to sleep? Do the bad dreams finally get to end? Is that why you're here? _Her fingers shook against the trigger, barely squeezing—barely moving as time moved ever-so slowly.

And then she was falling. Voice was crying its protests in her head, but he was softer, quieter and she was back in control. She could barely hear IT wailing above her, could barely feel the hands pawing at her form as she collapsed against the cavern floor, wheezing and gasping for breath. Both firearms were kicked aside as she was hauled onto her feet and pulled away from the monstrous Pennywise, as if any distance would help ease his control. The Deadlights still glowed overhead, but the pull they had on her was less than before—still there, but not as strong. It was like someone had doused her in a bucket of icy cold water as she was pulled away, gasping for breath like a dying fish.

One minute Katherine had been entranced by the resurrection of the Deadlights and the next she was being flung into the jagged tunnels of the cavern. Some distant part of her—the primordial part that helped her to survive so many crazy hunts—pushed her to her feet, heart pounding in her chest and breath panting in her lungs as wide eyes swung around wildly in the dark. The torchlight that was strapped to her forehead barely pierced the darkness of the alcove she had been shoved into and one wrong step sent her tumbling down, down, down, further into the dark she so despised.

* * *

Coming to sometime later, Katherine found herself laying in the pristine remains of the orphanage where remnants of the fire lay about like skeletal remains. Absently wiping away the gentle drip of blood that fell from her forehead, she gazed around at her new surroundings. Black soot covered every surface, from the windows to the beds to the children and back again; only the occasional flicker from the dying blue embers broke up the monochromatic landscape in which she was surrounded. Slowly sitting up, she hissed at the ache in her back from where she had landed and the multiple scratches lining her limbs. Mercifully she could breath properly again, but that still didn't settle the fear in her heart nor the tensity in her bones.

"When did I…?" Katherine's brows knotted in confusion as she clutched at her aching head. "I don't remember getting out of the sewers…how did I get here?" Glancing about she saw nae a stitch out of order—apart from the blankets of soot, that is—the iron beds still sat in military rows and were laden with slumbering children beneath scratchy woollen blankets. The rickety speakers in the top corners of the rooms still prattled out Church hymns and bible verses like they were lullabies.

Using the empty bed next to her as leverage, Katherine hauled herself to her feet and tried to move only to find herself stuck, glued in place by the heavy ball and chains shackled around her ankles. "What the—?" She kicked at the iron ball and immediately regretted the action as her toes sung in pain.

"You left us here" The boy to her left suddenly sat upright in his bed and turned to face her.

"Oh my God…!" Katherine gasped when she saw his face. It was blackened and burnt, with the flesh dripping from his bones like melted wax.

"You left us here to die" All around her, children rose from their beds in varying stages of burnt, broken and dying.

"I—I—I—" Katherine choked, stumbling over her words.

"It's your fault" A skeletal girl said as she rose from the bed, teddy in hand as she made her way over. "You killed us, didn't you Katherine?"

"I—I didn't m-mean to!" She wept.

"Yes, you did" More and more young children rose from their beds and swarmed the young woman as she tried to backpedal, only to fall backwards onto her bed and get swallowed up by the mattress. Like Alice down the rabbit hole she fell, the dead children's accusations following after her as the ball and chain dragged her _down._

"You burnt us!"

"You killed us!

"You left us all alone!"

"BURNT!"

"DEAD!"

"DEMON!"

"WITCH!"

Falling _through_ her bed, Katherine soon found herself inside another terrible nightmare, one she would have happily exchanged for the burnt walls of Saint Ursula's Home for Children; with its angry occupants and terrible nightmares. At least there she was home, at least there she was free. "NO!" Katherine wept, her voice hoarse as she pulled uselessly at the leather restraints binding her to the bed, just as she had done many times before. "NO! NO! PLEASE! NO! I DON'T WANT IT! I DON'T WANT IT!"

"Hold her still" Intoned the heavy set nurse, his hand and needle poised to strike.

"NO! NO!" Still Katherine struggled, even going so far as to snap her jaws at the arms reaching for her, blunt teeth digging into whatever they could reach.

She hated it here, hated the asylum far more than the orphanage. Hated the jaundice walls and the pastel-coloured staff, hated their procedures and remedies. Everyday she had prayed, prayed to be released from this terrible prison—prayed to be free—and _oh _how she had wept when her prayers had been answered. The man had been tall and garishly handsome in a way not many would have perceived. He had smelt of smoke and gunpowder, but she hadn't cared. He had smuggled her out, wrapped in layers of flannel and denim, had promised her she wouldn't _ever_ go back to that place. Wouldn't _ever _set foot in this blasted asylum, but it looks like he had been wrong.

"Please! _Please!" _Katherine begged, her eyes blurring with tears and her voice catching in her throat as the needle was injected and her world went numb. "Please…Foxy! Foxy! I beg of you! Help me! Help…me! _Please! CASTIEL! FOXY! ANYONE! PLEASE!"_ But it was no use; soon her tongue became just as numb as her mind and her words slurred together into an incorrigible mess. As she lay there broken and numb, a single memory came to mind; one of her earlier days at the Fox house when her saviour-turned-mentor, Asa Fox, had taken her out back and had placed a shotgun in her hands.

* * *

**_Fox Estate,_ _2004_**

_Twenty-three and free, Katherine A. Ursa happily stood in the cold forest, wrapped in layers of borrowed clothes as she watched Asa Fox, her saviour-turned-mentor waste away the evening hours as he shot down empty beer cans from a fallen tree in the woods bordering the estate. The pair had fallen into comfortable silence, momentarily broken as they talked about random things that skirted around her past and what landed her in that Godforsaken asylum. Of course, anyone could trace the paper trail and find out, as she was sure he had done._

_Lining up her sights, Katherine aimed the shotgun he had placed in her hands at the empty can still seated on the fallen tree and she had to wonder how it remained glued their despite the wet blanket of moss beneath it. "So just, uh, point and shoot?" She asked._

_"You got it" Asa sipped from his beer as she stood beside her. "Y'know I don't think my parents have ever loved each other" Somehow they had returned to the topic of family again and Katherine knew that he was going to try and probe for her sob story—he was rather persistent in that way. It was getting rather annoying._

_"Oh?" She said instead. "But they must've married for some reason"_

_"My mum was young. My dad was older, but he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So they moved into the family estate & started their nuclear family"_

_"Screw that"_

_"Yeah, screw that"_

**_BANG!_**

* * *

Gathering her courage, Katherine pulled at her restraints, tugging so hard she was sure that her wrists were going to break. "You killed those children, Katherine" The male nurse stood at the end of her bed with the room now mysteriously empty. "You deserve this"

"I know" Katherine replied, her voice strong as she finally pulled her restraints free.

"You killed them, their blood is on _your_ hands. You _deserve_ this" His yellow eyes gleamed in the sunlight. "And _so much more"_

"And I will never be free from that guilt" Her hands moved slowly under the blanket, his gleaming eyes tracking her every movement. "But it's made me who I am today" Her hand gripped tight to the hilt of the angel blade still strapped to her leg and in one quick movement, she launched towards the smartly-dressed nurse and buried the silver blade deep into his chest.

"And…what's that?" The golden-eyed nurse dribbled, blood ascending from the corners of his crooked lips.

"A _survivor" _Katherine twisted the blade in deeper. "And I'm not sorry about that"


	26. Round Two

**_"There will come a soldier  
_****_Who carries a mighty sword  
_****_He will tear your city down, o lei o lai o lord…  
_****_There will come a poet  
_****_Whose weapon is his word  
_****_He will slay you with his tongue, o lei o lai o lord…"  
_****_-_****_Soldier, Poet, King,_****_ The Oh Hellos_**

Scrambling back through the dark jagged tunnels, Katherine eventually found herself tumbling back into the main cavern where she was met with another sight that stopped her heart. "Will this nightmare never end?" She whispered to herself as she gazed upon Richie who now lay entangled in IT's grasp and Mike who lay wheezing on the ground not far away. A quick glance to the right showed Bill gasping on the ground, soaking wet and staring wide-eyed afraid up at Pennywise.

"No—!" Katherine gasped, clutching to the jagged cliff walls as IT's jaw cracked open to reveal the hundreds upon thousands of shark-like teeth stationed within its mouth. Frozen in fear and slightly woozy, Katherine could only watch as the gyrating teeth inched closer to Richie until the spittle stringing between the teeth was melting against Richie's blank face; his white unseeing eyes staring straight at the pulsating Deadlights shining through IT's head, locking him in place.

For all her Hunter expertise, training and sudden boost in confidence, Katherine felt like her whole world was falling apart. The family she had admittedly forgotten, but still held close to her heart was crumbling away; first Stanley and now Richie. This was _way _out of her hands—out of their hands. She felt like she was back in the sewers again as a child, unable to do anything as she watched her friends die. "We're too late…" The angel blade remained clasped in her white-knuckled grip and yet she was unable to send it flying, unable to use it now that the time had come. _Would it even work? Does an angel blade even work against something like this? Can I even throw it that far?_

She didn't have to wonder for long. "BEEP BEEP, MOTHERFUCKER!" Ed bellowed from a tunnel entrance across the room from hers, as he launched the iron pike towards IT's open jaws, nailing it in the back of the throat.

"Holy _shit!" _Katherine gasped in disbelief, watching for a brief second as IT gagged and scrambled backwards, trying to dislodge the make-shift weapon whilst Richie dropped like a rock. Landing on one of the outcropping shards of the altar, IT shrunk in size as it growled and snarled in pain from its sudden impalement. With IT down for the count, Katherine chose that moment to scurry from the tunnel entrance she had been sheltering and make her way over to the others. Unfortunately due to her head injury, her gait looked a little more drunk than she would have liked as she stumbled towards her fallen friends. She had barely made it to Bill when IT struck again.

"EDDIE!" Katherine wailed, her bloodcurdling cry echoed by that of Beverly who had emerged from another tunnel entrance adjacent to hers, alongside Ben.

"NO!" Beverly cried. Both of them seemed physically unharmed, although Beverly appeared to be stained with blood and Ben with dirt. She could only imagine what those two had suffered through—if they were anything like her scenario, then it was best left unsaid. IT laughed wickedly as Ed was yanked backwards by the terrifyingly long arm impaled through his chest, and swung about like he was on a rollercoaster. Blood flew like sakura petals and gurgling gasps could be heard bouncing around the cavern as Ed was flung about.

Consumed by her rage, fear and despair, Katherine _finally _launched the angel blade towards the outstretched arm holding Ed. Flying the air like a silver arrow, she watched full of hope as the blade became embedded in the dirty white ruffles of the clown's costume. "No…" She breathed, eyes wide as IT carelessly flung Ed aside and turned to her with a leering grin. With tears blurring her vision as she dove out of the way of the elongated limb sent her way and only just barely diving behind a large stalagmite, she was reminded that IT was not a creature of this world as the angel blades had yet to fail in killing anything from God's green Earth.

Peering out from behind the stalagmite, Katherine knew she had to time her run just right or risk resulting in the same fate as Ed. _There! _With IT occupied by the shard impaling its chest, she drunkenly stumbled over to the crag in which Ed had landed. Blinking away the tears and blood dripping down her face, she was pulled under Ben's arm in a small effort of protection against the monstrous clown that was appreciated but unneeded. If IT wanted to, they could both go flying together, a single arm wasn't going to do anything otherwise.

"Eddie!

"Eds!"

"Ed!"

"Eds! Eds!"

"Ed—_oh my God!_—Eddie!"

"Eds, c'me on man!" Chorused the Losers as they all slid over the ragged rocks to get to their injured friend. Carefully rolling him on to his back, they could only watch in shared trepidation and despair as the blood he coughed up, ran into the blood from the gaping wound on his torso.

_Please, no! _Katherine prayed because even in the dimly lit crag she could see the gory hole of Ed's wound gaping up at her. _Please! Not Ed too!_

"COME OUT AND PLAY, LOSERS!" Wailed IT as it tore at the entrance to the crag in an effort to try and reach them. Katherine's heart pounded in her chest as their deaths grew intimately closer; one more so than others. _Stupid! Why did you throw the knife away?! _She gnawed at her lip in worry as she watched Richie fall victim to his darkest fears. But it wasn't like they weren't warranted.

"He's—he's hurt really bad" Richie panicked, stripping off his jacket and pressing it to Ed's wound in a poor attempt to stop the flow as he collapsed by his side. "We—we gotta get him outta here!"

"How are we s'posed to do that, Richie?" Beverly shook her head despondently as she knelt next to them. Richie didn't have an answer, and neither did the others.

"…I—I almost…almost killed him!" Ed gasped softly and painfully. Crouching low, Katherine placed a comforting hand on Ed's leg as she leaned in close to listen to his words and tried to ignore the growing fear in her heart. _No one else! Please don't take anyone else!_

"My hands…" Ed tried to explain, grimacing through the unbearable pain. "Around his throat. I c-could feel _him _choking. I made him—made him small. He seemed so weak…he seemed _so _weak…"

"The Shokopiwah!" Mike exclaimed suddenly, his eyes gleaming bright as if Ed had uncovered something once buried. "All living things _must _abide by the laws of the _shape _they inhabit—!"

"—GUYS!" Ben called, grabbing all their attentions as he remerged from a small tunnel at the back of the crag. "There's a passageway! Through here!"

"The tunnel!" Beverly perked up. "Pennywise has to make himself small to get through the entrance of the cavern, right?"

"So if we can get back there…" Katherine picked up on her train of thought. "We can force him down to size! We make him small—"

"—Small enough so we can _kill him!"_

"I CAN SMELL THE STINK OF YOUR FEAR! IT roared as he broke through the last remnants of the rock keeping him at bay. The Losers needed little persuading as they dove through the back passageway and back out into the main cavern once more. Pausing at the mouth of the exit a little way aways from the first, Katherine felt hope bloom in her heart for the first time since she had returned to Derry. IT was occupied and they had a somewhat half-baked plan in the works which could end all their troubles. The end was just in sight, and it looked oh so sweet! But then again, it's always calmest before the storm.

"Hey, careful, careful" Katherine quietly coached as Bill and Richie set Ed down against the rock bordering the passage. Crouching beside the germaphobe, she took up one of Ed's hands and clung tightly to it like a child as Richie knelt as his other side and Ben at his feet.

"You okay, Eds?" Richie asked, gently petting his face in order to keep their friend awake.

"Nn" Ed groaned as he shifted, wincing slightly when the rock scraped against his gaping wound. "Hey Richie…I gotta tell you something…"

"Yeah? What's up, buddy?" Richie tried to keep his tone cheerful and bubbly just like always, but Katherine could hear the crack in his voice anyways.

"…I fucked your mom" Ed laughed, before wincing at the pain it caused him.

"Hey, hey" Katherine's free hand hovered over the jacket tied to his waist, unsure if touching him would help or hinder. She tightened her grip on his hand either way as Richie fussed over him.

Sparing a glance over her shoulder, Katherine watched as Beverly, Ben, Bill and Mike made a mad dash for the hole in the cavern wall in which all seven of them had scrambled through earlier. With IT occupied, she thought they might make it. That was until Ben stumbled over a loose rock and sent it clattering across the floor, catching IT's attention. They had barely even rounded the altar when IT launched itself clear across the room and landed in front of the quartet, blocking their way with a leering grin.

_"NO!"_


	27. All Grown Up

**_"…It's a world of laughter  
_****_A world of tears  
_****_It's a world of hopes  
_****_And a world of fears  
_****_There's so much that we share  
_****_That it's time we're aware  
_****_It's a small world after all…"  
_****_—It's a Small World_****_, Disneyland Chorus_**

"You _filthy _little children!" IT snickered, prowling forward as the elder Losers backpedalled. Adrenaline coursed through Katherine as she watched the scene play out like something from a horror movie. Her heart leapt into her throat, choking her words as she watched IT taunt the Losers like they were nothing more than prey. And yet a small part of her couldn't help but snark, _Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?_

"You got a plan B, man?" Ben demanded hysterically as they scrambled backwards. "What the _hell _are we gonna do now?!"

"You _DIE!" _IT replied, creeping ever closer. "That's what you do!"

_"Mike!"_ Bill pleaded, hands scrabbling against the sleeves of his wide-eyed friend who had been mad enough to call them all back to begin with.

"…There's—there's more than one way to make someone small!" Mike scrambled, his words rushing out as one in an attempt to get them out whilst he thought on his feet.

"Oh?!" IT chortled.

"Make him believe that he is!" Beverly agreed.

_"W-w-what?!" _Bill demanded.

"MAKE HIM BELIEVE THAT HE IS!" Mike reiterated, this time more firmly.

"Oh?" IT taunted as it moved forward with spider-like movements. "Me? _Small? Hahaha! I AM THE EATER OF WORLDS!"_

"Not to us you're not!" Mike retorted, full of defiance as he took half a step forward. "You're just a clown" That seemed to stop IT in its tracks momentarily as it tried to discern whether or not what he had was correct.

_"RAAAH!"_ IT roared, shaking away the thoughts of doubt as he bared his terrifying teeth down at Beverly.

"You're a weak woman!" Beverly stepped closer to the gyrating teeth bared at her. Not away.

_"EATER OF WORLDS!" _IT growled again as its jaws snapped shut and tried to regain the power he held over them. The same power he now felt slipping through his spindly fingers.

"A—A HEADLESS BOY!" Ben added, joining the fight.

"IMPOSTER!" Bill cried. With each new insult thrown its way, the clown tried to bare down on them individually, showing them each of their childhood fears. But the very creature which had haunted them for so many years was finally on the receiving end of the fear; was finally learning what it felt like to be afraid.

"YOU'RE…A MIMIC! A MIMIC!"

"A _FUCKING _BULLY!"

"JUST A _FUCKING _CLOWN!"

"A DUMB FUCKING CLOWN!" Richie screamed next to her.

"Fucking…clown!" Ed gasped.

"YOU _STUPID FUCKING _CLOWN!" Katherine agreed as Pennywise began to hurriedly backpedal, moving back onto the altar beneath the pulsating Deadlights where it hoped to find some shelter. But the quartet followed him right on his tail, they hounded him and shouted insults that weakened him more than any bullet or blade ever could.

"CLOWN!"

"A MOTHERFUCKING STUPID MUMMY!"

"CLOWN!"

"CLOWN!"

"CLOWN!"

"STUPID CLOWN!"

"CLOWN!

"CLOWN!"

"FUCKING CLOWN!"

Even as the clown shrunk down like a deflated balloon, the insults continued to fly but they were gradually loosing their fire now that IT was no longer baring over them. But Katherine worried that the clown would rise again as it had done so many times before. It was then that Richie jumped to his feet, startling her and raced towards the altar with determination set in his expression. Through the cracks in the altar, Katherine was able to watch as the bespectacled man ripped of one of the fanged arms and toss it aside, physically making IT smaller. "No ones scared of you! No ones afraid of you!"

"CLOWN!"

"CLOWN!"

"Clown!"

"With a scared beating heart" From her perch next to Ed, Katherine debated on whether or not she should go and assist the others, but as she watched the familiar ascension of blood floating towards the ceiling, she knew that they had it handled. With IT no longer breathing, the Deadlights faded to nothing and the single thread pulling at Katherine, tempting her towards them fell away and she slumped over in relief. Her shoulders physically sagging and her head dropped to her chest as the relief washed over her; an exhausted sigh falling from her lips.

Darkness shrouded them once more as barely enough sunlight dripped in from the surface miles above them. "Did…did we…do it?" Ed rasped, his words coming in harsh gasps making Katherine's head shoot up in panic.

"Eddie!" Katherine cried, hand cupping his unblemished cheek as she tried to keep him awake even with the adrenaline starting to fade from her own body, and the ache of her own injuries made themselves known. "You—you need to stay awake!" Tears blurred at her vision once again as Ed's head lolled to the side, her palm taking most of the weight. She clenched his hand into a white-knuckled grip as she listlessly pleaded for him to wake up.

_"The Dairy Queen _is still here!" She tried.

"What…?" Ed's brow knotted weakly in confusion.

"We can get ice cream afterwards! With sprinkles and chocolate sauce and—and—!"

"I want…waffle cone…"

"Okay" Katherine nodded as her tears bled down her nose and dripped onto his mangled chest. "Okay"

"Hey Kat?" His eyes rolled up to meet hers, and even though all of her tears she could see how heavily his lids were weighed down with exhaustion.

"Yeah, Eddie?" Katherine sniffed heavily.

"You're—you're…not really…an exterminator…are you?"

"…N-No" She choked, a wet smile painted on her lips in reply.

"…Knew it!" He grinned, eyes sliding shut.

"No! No, no, no!" Katherine pleaded, petting at his face. "Ed! Wake up! Wake up!"

"Please! Five more minutes!" He whined and she was reminded of days where he and Richie would fall asleep in the single hammock in their clubhouse out in the Barrens. Days where the two would spend the hours bickering over something inconsequential and then end of falling asleep together like a pair of play-fighting puppies.

"Please don't go, Eddie!" She whined, leaning her head against his chest where his heartbeat grew ever fainter. No longer caring for the gaping wound piercing his torso, she threw her arms around his slumped shoulders; her own shaking with the body-shuddering sobs racking her small frame. "Please! You're gonna be okay! You're gonna be okay! You gotta be okay!"

"It's…okay…I'm gonna…go play with…Stan and give 'im…a piece of my mind!" Ed laughed hoarsely. "Can't go…home like this…Mom'll have…kittens…!"

"Eddie…! _Please!" _Katherine's grip tightened on his shoulders as she begged and pleaded for him to stay, to hang on. Nothing else mattered. Not the other Losers facing against IT, not the multitude of Reapers filling the jagged crevices of the cavern and certainly not the pool of cooling blood she knelt in. All she cared about was the friend dying her arms.

"Katherine" Georgie's voice was soft in the quiet space; but it pierced through her numb brain like a hot poker. "Katherine you need to let go"  
"NO!" She spun to face the boy, her stance protective. Her eyes snapped up towards Georgie who stood off to the side and stared sadly down at the pair, with his hands shoved into his pockets. His little yellow raincoat shone brightly in the dim cavern, like a beacon to which the souls would flock. "Leave him alone! Leave him! You can't take him! You _can't!"_

"He's gone, Katherine, let him go" Georgie implored, his gaze briefly glancing towards his elder brother and his friends all grown up. It must've been odd for him, seeing them like that.

_"No!"_ She pulled back only so that she could cradled Ed's body to hers, carefully holding him as if he would break. The adrenaline that was once keeping her moving had now bled from her small frame leaving her tired and weeping on the cold stone floor; which meant that even if she wanted to fight back against the young Reaper, she couldn't. She knew this—deep down—she knew this, and yet she stubbornly clutched to the body of her dead friend as sobs racked her. "Go away! _Go away!"_

"Kat—"

Their conversation was cut short however, when the sound of harried and thundering footsteps returned to them once more. Looking away from the golden-garbed Reaper, Katherine rose her tear-stained eyes to the quintet of elder Losers as she clung to Ed like he was a teddy bear protecting her from the dark. Richie was the first to reach them, crouching next to the pair he laughed joyfully; one hand clasped to Katherine's shoulder. "We got him, Midge! We got the Pennywise, man!" But Ed didn't reply and Katherine stared at him with tears running down her cheeks, mixing with the snot and blood stained there. "Eddie? Eddie? Eddie!"

"R-Richie…" Bill stuttered, his quiet voice piercing through their grief. "H-He's gone"

"No! He's—he's alright!" Richie spun around defiantly as the whole cavern creaked and groaned. "He's just hurt! We gotta get him outta here! Ben, help me! Bill, he's okay—we just gotta get him outta here!"

"Bev…" Bill turned to the golden-haired woman for help as the world around them continued to crumble.

"Richie…" Beverly spoke tenderly.

"…_What?" _Richie snapped, annoyed that his friends weren't listening.

"Honey, he's dead. We have to go. Come on, come on, Richie"

"Kat—Kat" Mike pulled her out from underneath Ed, his heavy weight flopping unceremoniously to the floor as Richie tried desperately to cling to Ed's body just as she had done moments before. "C'me 'ere"

Her body felt weightless and numb as she was hauled to her feet, her steps were uncoordinated as she was handed off to Beverly and all the while she could only watch through depressed eyes as Richie wailed and fought to be left with Ed. It pulled at her sore heart—at all of their hearts—it hurt so much to leave him behind. _You said this was a good dream! _Katherine wailed, clinging to Beverly so as to stay upright whilst she cursed out God, Death & its Reapers and Derry itself, _We were all s'posed to get out of this alive! No one else was s'posed to die! You lied! You lied! Why? Why would you do this?! What did we ever do to you?! Fuck you! FUCK YOU!_

Scrambling back through the jagged tunnels of the underground Derry sewers and sloshing through the drab grey water, the Losers dragged each other kicking and screaming away from the final resting place of their dear friend and IT as the cavern came down on top of them. Just as the bodies of the missing children and the blood had done all those years ago, the rock cracked and broke off, gallons of water rose towards the ceiling in a twisting tornado. As they scrambled and stumbled through the remnants of the Neibolt house, the tar-covered floorboards and rotting wallpaper peeled away and was sucked inwards with such an intense ferocity. And then they were back out in the sun, the street serene and warm as if nothing had happened.


	28. These Friends of Mine

**_"…And as the years go by  
_****_Our friendship will never die  
_****_You're gonna see it's our destiny  
_****_You've got a friend in me…"  
_****_—_****_You've got a Friend in Me,_****_ Casey Abrams_**

They all clung to each other even as they raced out onto the street and turned to watch as the Neibolt house collapsed back in on itself. The entire hole filled up until nothing was left, just a rickey rusted barbed fence lining a dead and dusty garden. Held up by the arms holding her, Katherine leant her head back into their chest and closed her tear-stained eyes as she watched Georgie and Ed stand hand-in-hand under the old oak tree across the road, behind the house. The gentle lull of their heartbeat dulled the pain in her head and helped to ease the hurt in her heart. She felt like a child clinging to their mother; safe inside their protective circle as they chased away the nightmares plaguing her. But these weren't nightmares, not anymore.

Her face screwed up in pain as she listened to Richie's desperate wails as he struggled against Ben and Mike in his attempt to return to the collapsing sewers and Ed's corpse buried below. The sound almost hurt worse than the aching in heart, or the pounding in her head. Dust tickled at her nose and Katherine fought the urge to sneeze; the grief in her heart warred with the flood of relief inside her. Relief that the war against IT—against Pennywise—was _finally _over, even at a great and terrible cost. Ed, Stanley and all those children IT had devoured over the years. _If things had gone differently, would we have been one of those children? _She wondered.

When all the dust had settled, leaving naught but a dead garden and a dusty sinkhole where the Neibolt house once stood, the remaining Losers finally turned from the house silent as mice. Bill led the way just as he had done when they were children, Beverly walked hand-in-hand with Ben—_That's new—_Mike and Richie walked side-by-side in the middle of the pack—likely to make sure the strangely quiet bespectacled man didn't return to the sewers—and Katherine took up the rear, silently gazing at each of her old friends as they meandered down the street. No words were spoken, they weren't needed and it was unlikely that any of them had anything to share anyways.

Turning onto Turner Street, the elder Losers continued on down the barren path as Katherine came to a halt in front of the ruins of the orphanage for the second time since her return. Now free of IT, she wondered if the building would be any different. Staring up at the ashen building, she didn't even notice she'd started humming the song from her memory, as something in her mind plucked at a memory long-forgotten. Much like the others, she had been remembering little things over the course of the passed couple of days of her time in Derry; but this seemed to be the last little piece in hers. It was something that itched in her brain and she couldn't help but wonder if the mementos were still in there, buried deep like secrets.

"Kat?" Ben called, having glanced over his shoulder at some point to see her missing. "You good?"

"There's—there's something I gotta do…" Katherine replied absently as she strode up the steps of the burnt orphanage and numbly made her way inside.

"Kat—! Kat—wait!" Her footsteps crunched against the remains of her childhood home as she moved about; footsteps that were echoed by her friends as they followed her inside. "Where are you—? Kat!"

She ignored their calls as she strode towards her old bedroom, the one she shared with about ten other kids. Freezing in the doorway, her dirty hands clasped at the doorframe and she couldn't help but think of what Sister Micheals would have said if she could see her now. She'd scold her for tracking in dirt, that was for sure—a day or two spent scrubbing out the stains with a toothbrush or maybe some timeout in the dark cells below them would be in order. "I'm _so _sorry" She whispered, her voice carrying across the old musty room. "I hope you can forgive me, one day"

Taking a deep breath, she crossed the threshold of the broken bedroom and made her way towards the iron frame of her bed where it lay in a deformed puddle on the floor, long cold by now, but melted from the hellfire she had used to burn the place in a moment of desperation. With an almighty heave, she began to push the melted iron way from the singing floorboard beneath. The metal scraped horrendously against the old floor like nails down a chalkboard, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. After a few more attempts of huffing and puffing later, she was able to move the frame far enough to reach the floorboard she was looking for. At first glance there was nothing special about this particular section of floor, but it was only once you applied pressure to it, that it would squeak or 'sing'

Collapsing next to the singing floorboard, Katherine quickly went about prying up the blackened wood, mindless of her already dirty fingernails or the cloud of dust & soot that billowed about her as she worked. Soon enough, after much fussing, she was setting aside the blackened wood and reached into the recess' of the floor where her fingers brushed against the cobweb-laden items hidden in the dark. Pulling it free, she sat back and just gazed at the item in question as the sound of her friends crept closer.

"Midge? _This _is were you lived?" Richie's voice floated in from the hallway as the elder Losers snooped about the place, their footsteps coming closer to the room in which she occupied. The crack in his voice let her know that the forcefully bright tone wasn't fooling anybody, let alone himself. But Richie had always been like that—smiles & laughter to cover up the darkness. "It's a bit of shit hole"

"Beep beep, Richie" Bill murmured, the reaction completely ingrained in him like muscle memory. Katherine smiled fondly at the sound of something being knocked over and the hushed curses that followed.

"What? Oh, go on! Tell me I'm wrong!"

"There was a fire" Katherine supplied as she carefully rubbed away the soot covering the old memento.

"I gathered _that_ much, funnily enough" Richie sassed as they all trooped into the bedroom and came to gather around her on the floor.

"I remember that" Mike added softly, "21 October 1999—it made the papers"

"Mm" Katherine hummed as she flipped over cassette keychain in her hands. It was a crappy little thing; small, malleable and barely able to hold more than one song—it was a wonder it had survived the fire, if she was being honest.

"Oh yeah! I remember that. We went to see _Toy Story _the day before we all left" Ben murmured, peering over her shoulder at the bedazzled cassette tape in her hands. "You saw it in the claw machine and begged to get it. E-Ed and I took forever trying to get it and Stan got it on the first go"

Katherine's heart warmed at the memory and silent tears slipped down her already stained cheeks as her thumb rubbed again over her horrible fourteen year old self's handwriting that displayed the title of the single song the cassette held: _YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME. _The watery smile that graced her lips, wobbled as the glitter pen hearts peeled away under her thumb. Her grip tightened on the keychain as she silently grieved for the friends she had lost, for the siblings that she had killed, for those who had suffered because of IT. The hand on her shoulder was comforting and her gaze traced it up the arm attached to it, to find Richie's understanding face staring back at her.

* * *

Sometime later, the Losers found themselves back at the Barrens, at the ledge that overlooked the Quarry—now barred by road barriers and a sign that warned against jumping. Tired and weary, the group didn't need to speak as they removed their shoes and mounted the barrier. Parallel to that day when they had first met as children, Katherine was the first to jump. Taking a flying leap, the young woman soared above the serene landscape for a moment or two, just hanging in the air like a bird before she dropped like a stone and splashed into the murky water below. Next was Beverly and then the boys.

Paddling over to one of the sandbanks, the group set about quietly washing away the evidence of their trials in the water. Each of them consumed by their own minds and grief-stricken thoughts as they tried to process what had happened. "Y'know what?" Ben choked out as he stared at his bloody hands beneath the murky water. Katherine lifted her own gaze from the water and turned to face the blonde. "Eddie would've hated this, guys"

"What?" Bill asked in slight disbelief. "Cleaning ourselves in dirty water?"

"Yeah…"

"He'd be telling us we'd getting Streptacocil—something" Beverly added with a tired smile.

"Yeah, but we would've made us laugh though" Mike agreed.

"Oh yeah" Katherine nodded. "He'd be looking out for us, like he always was…"

"Isn't that right, Richie?" Bill turned to their friend who sat perched atop an outcropping rock and quietly weeping into his hands, the sound only slightly muffled.

"Hey…" Beverly murmured as they all swarmed on him, clinging tight as he sobbed. Katherine's arms barley reached around both Ben and Bill, but she rested her head on Richie's knee as he cried, silently offering support as best she could. The surviving Losers clung to each other just as they had done in the sewers back when Bill had pulled Georgie's raincoat from the tower, each of them silently holding tight to each other as if letting go would mean saying goodbye forever.

"…Thank you" Richie eventually warbled, his voice hoarse and his eyes red from crying. Katherine would bet anything that they all held that same look. "I don't have my glasses on, so I don't know who you people are, but thank you" The laughter that spilt from Katherine's lips was shared by everyone at the familiar teasing tone of their trashmouth friend. "No, seriously, I legit can't find my glasses"

"Are you serious?" Beverly asked. "Where were they?"

"Ah, they were here somewhere…" He gestured to the general area around them, as the others dove beneath the murky waters looking for the lost item in question. It was cool and quiet beneath the waters of the Quarry and Katherine relished in the change as her eyes alighted, not on Richie's missing glasses, but the glistening shell of a turtle as it swam passed her face. A tentative grin pulled at her lips as he fingers traced the curves and bumps of the creature swimming by; one that she swore was mirrored on its tiny reptilian face.

* * *

The walk back through town was laden with nostalgia: the remnants of Derry's Canal Days Festival could still be seen adorning buildings and speckled through window shops. Now free of the dirt and grime that plagued them, they looked more like a band of weary travellers than the scared adults facing their childhood fears. "Hey guys" Beverly called, pulling the group to a halt as she searched her hand for the blood oath scar that had once marred her palm. "Look"

"Nothing lasts forever" Mike replied as they all inspected their own hands. The stitch-like tattoo on Katherine's palm now appeared a little odd without the thick scar running through the middle of it.

_Maybe it had been the real deal afterall. _She mused, finding no trace of the previous scar. Glancing up from her palm, Katherine felt like she could see her young reflection in the window of the phone store—_all _of their young reflections—staring back at her and she was reminded of the joyful aftermath that had followed them the first time.

* * *

**_Main Street, Derry, 1988_**

"I can't go home like this guys!" Ed worried as they all stared at their weary and victorious forms reflected back at them in the shop window. "My mom'll kill me!" It was a fair assumption—the germaphobe was _covered _in dried puke and stank like all hell. Then again, Katherine _was _drenched in sewerage water and tucked into the front of Mike's basket with her legs dangling over the front as exhaustion pulled at her lids.

"Dude, you've been gone for 24 straight hours!" Richie retorted, "Your face is _definitely _on a milk carton by now. Also that puke smells worse than your mom's slippers"

"Beep beep, Richie" Beverly sassed.

"Okay, first of all! My mom's slippers smell like potpourri asshole" Defended Ed.

"No, they don't" Stanley denied as the group began to make their way up the street once more with the summer sun beating down on their backs.

"Yes, they do and also how do _you _know what they smell like in the first place?"

"Can we just keep it quiet please?" Mike begged, trying to steer with Katherine falling asleep in his basket.

"Potpourri is literally a French word meaning dried petals and spices used to perfume a room—" Beverly retorted. Up the front, Katherine dissolved into tired giggles as she listened to them prattle on about dead flowers and Ed's mom's slippers. _This, this is a good dream._


	29. Dear Losers

**_"…_****_This is our sanctuary  
_****_We can find shelter and peace  
_****_This is our sanctuary  
_****_You are, you are safe with me…"  
_****_-Sanctuary, Welshly Arms_**

**_Dear Losers,_**

It was hard returning to Turner Street, even if it was only for a short moment. Katherine felt like she was going to fall apart at any moment and she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched as she moved about the place. Padding softly to Mother Superior's office as she had done so many times before, she plucked the airtight case in which the charred _Nothing _still sat and returned to the foyer with salt and matches in hand.

It took a few tries to pry up the loose floorboards in the foyer, even with the help of her shovel. But as soon as the spade met dirt, she cracked open the case and chucked the old belt inside. After giving it a good dousing of salt and gasoline, she stood and watched as the old leather crackled and melted away. She liked to think that the kids still tied to this place were watching her, liked to think that maybe it would be enough for them to forgive her. Maybe—hopefully.

When the fire had finally died out, she took up the shovel once more, this time digging the hole deep enough to fit in the roots of the sapling rose bush. The golden yellow petals of the first rose shone brightly in the dark ruins of the orphanage and she took great care to water it before she left.

She still had two more to plant.

**_I know what this must seem like, but this isn't a suicide note. You're probably wondering why I did what I did. It's because I knew I was too scared to go back and if we weren't together, if all of us alive weren't united, I knew we'd all die. So, I made the only logical move: I took myself off the board._**

The soft serve was cold against her lips and tasted ever so sweet as she sat on the curb and watched Georgie take Ed's soul by the hand and lead him away. There were no blemishes on him, no sign of any wound or cause of death and if Katherine didn't no any better it would like a family outing to the park. The corners of her lips twitched upwards when she saw Georgie spare a wave over his shoulder at her; one that caused Ed to look about in confusion.

The burn of her newly printed tattoos helped to ground her as she watched her friend disappear and walk down the path to Heaven. She wasn't really sure how she felt about Heaven & Hell, but what she did know is that she wished both Ed and Stan would be in some place better, some place that they deserved. She could only hope.

**_Did it work? Well, if you're reading this, then you know the answer. I lived my whole life afraid; afraid of what would come next, afraid of what I might leave behind. Don't. Be who you wanna be, be proud. And if you find someone worth holding onto, never ever let them go. Follow your own path, wherever that takes you. _**

The remaining Losers hadn't really said goodbye to each other, more or less afraid that they would forget each other as soon as they left their hometown. But eventually, one-by-one they all trickled away, just as they had done as children; they all had new lives to return to afterall.

The black ink of the stamp-like tattoo printed on her shoulder contrasted greatly against her pale skin and shone like a family crest as she finally left the streets of Derry behind. The tattoo consisted of three sections of text that encompassed a little red balloon; the top arch—_THE LOSERS CLUB—_was printed in neat handwriting, as was the bottom arch—_DERRY, MAINE—_and finally the intersecting text through the middle—_EST. 1988—_looked to be typed and was separated by a single red balloon. She had also retouched the line of stitching across her palm; now that the scar was gone, the 'cut' needed to be redone.

Tears twinkled in her eyes as she drove back down the main road, all bandaged up with the sounds of her 80s playlist rocking through the car and rattling the windows. The keychain cassette tape she had scavenged from the orphanage now hung from the rearview mirror, alongside a small bottle of holy water and the strip of mall photos of the Losers Club, from that summer in 1988. The strip of photos had come with Stan's letter, and Katherine's hands gripped tighter to the steering wheel as she drove; the familiar weight of metal against flesh helped (even if the necklace was now a simple silver pendant that read: _REMEMBER)._

**_Think of this letter as a promise, a promise I'm asking you to make. To me, to each other, an oath. See, the thing about being a Loser is, you don't have anything to lose. So, be true, be brave, stand, believe and don't ever forget, we're Losers and we always will be._**

_YOU'RE LEAVING DERRY! COME AGAIN SOON!_


	30. Playlist

_Once Upon a December, _Liz Callaway  
watch?v=r1zamKoUREI

_School's Out, _Alice Cooper  
watch?v=gcVEhtojXlc

_Come Together (Remastered), _The Beatles  
watch?v=oolpPmuK2I8

_Down to the River to Pray, _Colorado All State Choir  
watch?v=mulxxoAKf20

_Bad Moon Rising, _Morning Ritual  
watch?v=fNjgfTfQjCQ

_Loser like Me, _Glee  
watch?v=4Pm1v9NzlMs

_Start a War, _Valerie Broussard  
watch?v=4v840p20QtE

_Wicked Ones, _Dorothy  
watch?v=kOngAfP_2OE

_Her Name is Alice, _Shinedown  
h watch?v=jghgroHc-AM

_Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō (Don't Forget Your Roots), _Six60  
watch?v=Sl-OmGyveiY

_See You Again, _Wiz Khalifa  
watch?v=cPyovQwFmhE

_Back in Time, _Huey Lewis & The News  
watch?v=ur57IunS9To

_Here I Go Again, _Whitesnake  
watch?v=oohFGOmcxuo

_What's Wrong with Kids these Days? _Kira Kosarin  
watch?v=r4nZfvfYW3s

_Memory,_ Jennifer Hudson  
watch?v=h_6oGApWnqw

_I See Fire, _Ed Sheeran  
watch?v=2fngvQS_PmQ

_In My Blood, _Shawn Mendes  
watch?v=XEyhoB-hUrE

_We Didn't Start the Fire, _Billy Joel  
watch?v=xbSnRVspDb8

_What's Up Danger? _Black Cavier & Blackway  
watch?v=-euUGPQZoHw

_Calling All the Monsters, _China A. McClaine  
watch?v=LEbYT2UdiHs

_Down, Down to Goblin Town, _John Stephenson  
watch?v=3W0iA_1RB9Y

_Ring—a—Ring—a—Rosie  
_ watch?v=kVpPlWlHMrA_  
_

_Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), _Nancy Sinatra  
watch?v=qgDrpWWxuto

_Lullaby of Woe, _Ashley Serena  
watch?v=ohNpf4VnlP8

_Solider, Poet, King, _The Oh Hellos  
watch?v=1z8zZBBkIRw

_It's a Small World, _The Disneyland Chorus  
watch?v=PxRW-duSCLA

_You've Got a Friend in Me, _Casey Abrams  
watch?v=rzmIiku-gZk

_Sanctuary, _Welshly Arms  
watch?v=eYAQeV9Z00M


End file.
